Timekeeper : Resolution (ACT 2)
by ASSAULTIER
Summary: Isaac's suffering continues... The exile has returned home and he's in a place he swore he'd never return to. Now with his former allies against him and time running out, Isaac must navigate Requiem alongside John-117, Cortana and the crew of the UNSC Infinity and confront the demons of his checkered past from before... Takes place during Halo 4. Contains elements from Starcraft...
1. The Exile's Return

**Chapter 1 : The Exile's Return**

**So here we are. Back for the next act of my ongoing story, Timekeeper : Resolution. Now this act will mainly take place in the Halo universe and feature prominently over the next few chapters. For those who are following from the previous act and are fans of Starcraft, Sarah Kerrigan and James Raynor will pop up here and there, especially during the later chapters. Speaking of which, newcomers can go read Act 1 if you're confused. Just to be safe… Oh, if you have any ideas on the next world for Act 3, please leave me a private message or review to inform me. I'll be sure to take this into consideration. Onto to the show then, shall we?**

_"Humanity as an entity and as a whole is as mysterious as the stars that dot the universe above us. Incomprehensible, indecipherable and full of surprises…" _– Isaac Eisenhower

"No, no, on. Not here. Please… Anywhere but here." Isaac found himself whimpering as he curled up into a ball on the cold, grey, metallic surface. His legs were sprawled across the length of the room and his hands clasped his skull, the situation completely unacceptable and unbearable to comprehend. All Isaac could muster in defense was a weak 'Why?', the word still caught in his throat. Why here? Why did he have to come here of all places? Was there a reason or was he just plain unlucky? The voice in his head chose this inopportune moment to chime in, placing even more stress on his already taxed nervous system.

"**We are here? In your home of exile?"** the voice echoed curiously in his head, its tone grating like cheese against Isaac's own troubled thoughts.

"Please… not here…" Isaac mumbled, ignoring the voice's question.

"**Brother, get a grip on your faculties. This will not do if we're to locate the next piece.**" At those words, Isaac mentally barricaded every other thought and placed it on hold, the voice of his brother's recent words catching his full attention.

"YOU KNEW?! YOU KNEW!?" he screamed at the ghost of his brother, demanding answers to his cryptic words.

"**Is it not the reason why we set our course on this path? To stop them?**" it plainly stated.

"Well, I certainly didn't think that those crystals were f $&ing sentient!"

"**The crystals are not psychic if that is your main concern. I simply think that fate has brought us here for a reason. That reason being our next step in defeating the White Phoenix and those who they serve.**" The voice of his brother exasperatedly explained to an inconsolable Isaac who tossed a nearby supply box in a fit of pure rage against the wall, the sound of it smashing into pieces feeling like music to his ears. Angrily, he retorted rudely.

"Well, fate seems to love twisting my arm and ruining my life." His signature dry sarcasm was on full display. Shame no-one could hear it. Well, except his brother's voice.

"**What did you expect? We chose to walk down this path and go down the rabbit hole. You thought there was candy and rainbows at the end of all this?**"

"No… No… I just…."

"**Trust me, Isaac. You're not the only one suffering here.**"

"You know what I've done. Do you know anyone with the same burdens I carry now?" Silence followed suit. "Yeah, I thought that might be it." Isaac scoffed and turned his gaze towards the room before him. It was yet another grey, lifeless hulk of metal masquerading as a room. Despite that general assessment, Isaac realized upon further inspection that it was a backup cryogenic tank room to the side of a hallway. The air felt chilly and the frosted glass on the cryo tube he had materialized only haunted him with past memories of being dragged past frozen bodies in the facility he had been imprisoned in. Emblazoned proudly on its side were the telltale markings of the United Nations Space Command or UNSC for short. With a hint of disgust, Isaac turned his back on the accursed symbol and took stock of the rest of the room. To his left was a storage locker jammed pack with unknown equipment. To his right was a small vault-like door, no doubt leading into the hallway.

One glance at his own handcannon revealed what he feared. The click that followed his pull on the trigger confirmed it. '_Bone dry. Crap. Guess I'll see what's behind the door…_' he pondered. With a heavy heart and a hint of reluctance in motions, he reached out for the handle on the reinforced locker with his bloodied hand, yanking it open with one swift motion. Isaac's eyes scanned its contents. At the base of the locker laid a set of standard UNSC marine armor about his size, equipped with all the bells and whistles of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper or ODST's new line hardware. '_Must be some newbie who got bumped up a notch before all this went down._' It must be said that the room felt eerily quiet. Not a peep echoed from the hallway outside. Considering the possibilities, Isaac finally settled upon a scuttled frigate most likely lost during the war with the insurrectionists or perhaps those unknowns that showed up a week before his capture. Whatever the case, Isaac didn't care. Only thing that mattered was getting off this hunk of metal and deciphering the location of the next shard piece. '_Well, since whoever this belonged to won't need it…_' he thought as his left eye glinted with sarcastic aplomb, eyeing the uniform. His hands went to work, dexterously removing the blood-stained overalls from his days on the Hyperion and slipping on the boots and chestplate of the uniform.

A glance in the mirror stuck to the other side of the locker gave a good first impression. At least anyone dumb enough won't think twice about asking questions. Isaac's now red irises turned towards the armament stocked beside the locker wall, not even bothering to act surprised at his eyes. '_No doubt it's my brother's influence._' He figured instantly. To his disappointment, it appeared that firepower was not an issue with this particular trooper. A measly M6H pistol and a handful of M9 hand grenades were available at hand for the disgruntled soldier. '_Not even a damn rifle. Oh, well. Got to make do…_' he cursed to himself as he holstered the pistol and the grenades in his belt. Stepping away from the looted container, he pressed his hand against the door and pushed it aside, walking out into a deserted and ruined corridor. One sigh later and Isaac set off with one thought in mind. '_Here we go again._'

A few minutes later and Isaac came across a large connecting room, littered with empty supply crates and torn apart as well. Wires small and large frayed about along the walls of the once great room and gaping holes in the infrastructure was enough to tell Isaac what he needed to know. '_Looks like everything went to shit. Too bad no-one's here to clean it up._' He joked internally. Searching a pile of crates for any valuable items, the voice sprung up again from the recesses of his mind.

"**Anything useful?"** it spoke quietly as to not distract Isaac from his menial task.

"No. Just some MREs and spare cartridges for the MA5D." he replied. While the voice and him had their differences, Isaac found their conversations pleasant once in a while and helped ease the stress the task ahead had on him.

"**Perhaps the bench may prove useful.**" The voice offered his suggestion.

"Well if I wanted to feed hungry children with bullets loaded with MREs, sure…" he grinned sheepishly as he tossed aside another useless junk item.

"**Very funny, brother. Truly hilarious stuff.**" The voice groaned at the bad joke. Isaac took it in stride.

"Thank you. I'll be here all night."

"**Well, we will be if we do not find a way off this space wreckage.**" The voice ominously warned.

"You don't need to remind me." Isaac reassured the voice. As his hands mechanically rummaged through another supply crate, his ears perked up at the sound of gunfire emanating from nearby. Reacting instinctively, Isaac whipped out his pilfered pistol and trained it at the nearest entryway. The rattle of rifle fire still filled the air and the thud of boots stomping on the floor was ever present but it was getting farther away, the noise finally dying down and leaving Isaac in pitch-black silence.

"**We're not alone it seems.**" The voice dryly commented.

"Yeah! No shit Sherlock!" Isaac rudely retorted at the voice's witty remark.

"**Should we seek them out? We may speed things up, so to speak.**" The voice offered. Isaac vehemently refused, shaking his head back and forth with a steely resolve.

"No. Let's stay away from them as long as possible. They might be hostile and I certainly do not want any mishaps along the way." He explained his reasoning. The voice seemed to accept this and remained silent, leaving Isaac to his ponderings and the miniscule pile of loot he has amassed from the crates. Isaac opted for the stealthy approach, sneaking away from the scene with nary a sound nor a whisper and making his escape to the engine room. As he inched his way closer towards the engine room, the tension in the atmosphere began to flourish and Isaac's eyes swiveled in their sockets, attempting to cover every possible angle. This was further impounded by Isaac's refusal to use the built-in flashlight, on the grounds that it would attract attention. At the same time however, he had to contend with pitch-black darkness at times due to flicker and broken ceiling lights.

Further down the hallway, Isaac caught a glimpse of a viscous material splattered across the wall like jam. It looked oddly similar in texture to human blood yet possessed an oddly purplish shade. Upon further inspection, Isaac's eyes widened in horror as he looked back upon fresh foreign blood of a sickening color sprayed upon the wall, emanating from an alien life form slumped against the wall. The voice ironically 'voiced' his opinion.

"**What is that thing?**" it queried quizzically.

"I have no idea. It looks…. alien in nature." answered Isaac with a hint of doubt in his tone.

"**Is it… dead?**" it warily asked, cautious at the threat it might possess.

"Looks like it. Jeez." The word was appropriate indeed. The alien possessed quadruple-like mandibles with rows of sharp teeth serving as their mouth. Its body was covered in alien yet medieval style armor, harkening back to the days of the Crusades. The body armor hid an astonishing muscular torso but from the looks of it failed to halt the barrage of bullets that he had been peppered with. Thick, viscous purplish blue liquid streamed from the bullet holes and congealed into a puddle upon the metal floor. Its arms were equally human-like though the hands with three elongated and engorged finger-like talons were distinct enough to assure that he was staring into the eyes of an actual alien life form. Yet for some reason, it did not enthrall him as he once dreamed of as a child. '_Oh, yeah… That's right. This shit is so much less weird than the stuff I've seen already._' He rolled his eyes at the obvious point. Leaning forward, he bent down to close the alien's eyelids in the hopes of surrendering him to some form of peace.

"Rest in peace, mate…" Isaac quietly whispered as he glanced sideways at the length of the corridor. To no shock from his corner, the battlefield was strewn with the corpses of dead aliens, ranging from short pudgy aliens with a form of gas mask across their face to reptilian-like creatures with flickering energy shields still mounted to their wrists. Begrudgingly, Isaac traipsed forward with caution but not before pilfering a long plasma carbine off one of the dead reptile aliens. 'Sorry, I need this.' He exclaimed loudly in his head as if he expected an answer.

"**This is… disturbing, even for me.**" The voice commented sadly as he witnessed the carnage from Isaac's red irises.

"Who knows? Maybe they're the bad guys or something. Could have been self-defense…" Isaac trailed off, not daring to voice the alternative. The voice felt suitably unhinged at this answer.

"**Even so, this is unquestionably messy.**" The voice hesitated as Isaac's eyes fell upon a puny runt of an alien with half its face peeled right off with clean precision.

"It's not any different from our methods so far… Come on, let's go. I'm a bit sick staying around here." Shouldering the alien weapon in his palms, Isaac took position and crept out of the hallway, leaving the carnage far behind him. It felt like déjà-vu, like his time back home. Not one for reliving the past too often, he set the memory far aside under lock and key before moving forward.

Isaac entered the back room leading to the engine room through the side door, alien rifle in tow. Scanning the room thoroughly, he was pleased to see no hostiles present. '_Great, something went right for once…_' thought Isaac to himself as he edged closer to the center console in the middle of the room. The windows were completely closed behind hard-shield shutters, obscuring any view of the situation outside. All was quiet and silent as the veteran lowered his weapon and reached for the console. But before he could lower his finger on any shiny buttons, a voice cried out from behind him.

"Hey, who are you?" the sound commanded with authority. Isaac's stomach churned. '_Ah, crap. Here we go again._' With reluctance, he spun around to meet his assailant, swearing once again to check his flanks before moving in for the kill. One look startled the veteran fighter, though he was quick to mask said astonishment from the person before him. Taking him in stock, Isaac grunted at the sight. It was yet another armored bastard wielding an assault rifle, its business end pointed straight at Isaac's general direction. Unlike James and Sarah however, this guy seemed to have had a more militaristic approach to armor. Not only was the armor suitably robotic and felt like blocks of hardened steels strapped together, it sported a visor so opaque that Isaac wondered how he was able to see. '_Most likely using the Heads Up Display which comes standard for every Tom, Dick and Harry._' Not Isaac. No, sir… His name certainly wasn't Tom, Dick or Harry for that matter. To top off this fetish outfit for the army, it was painted in army green. 'I hate this guy already.' he pondered in his subconscious. The man in the suit spoke drew first blood in the war of talking, so to speak.

"Who are you?" he repeated the order again, expecting this unknown to comply.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa… Settle down, man. I'm one of you guys. See?" Isaac pointed a finger towards his uniform, hoping to fool this knucklehead.

"State your name and rank, soldier." The man relented, he himself hoping to suss out the lies from him.

"Private Isaac Eisenhower reporting for duty, sir!" '_Too easy…_' went his inner thoughts.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked with a degree of skepticism in his voice. Isaac paused for a moment as he took in the man. Only the number 117 emblazoned in white upon his breastplate allowed Isaac to deduct the man's identity and reminding Isaac of the reason he never wanted to come back here.

"You're… the Spartan, right?" Isaac answered meekly.

"Good, you know. That settles the matter." Spartan designation 117 lowered his rifle and walked forward to take stock of the man before him. The uniform was standard-issue for most marines enlisted in the UNSC but the added attachments allowed him to deduce that at some point, Isaac was whitelisted for ODST training. He had short black hair and a well-rounded face to go along with a fit figure. However, just like James before, the armored Spartan stopped at Isaac's irises. Never before had he seen any person with eyelids his color. Before he could prod any further, the rookie opened his mouth to speak.

"Permission to speak, sir?"

"Carry on." The Spartan nodded.

"May I ask what you're doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Me? Isn't this supposed to be the drop-off point, sir?"

"What?"

"Yeah, Command gave the order for all recruits to report to battle-stations. I assumed that it would be a long trip so I took the remaining cryo-tube there was, sir."

"What year do you think this is?"

"2552, sir." Isaac replied, having made a mental note of the date stamped upon the cryo chamber before he left.

"It's been five years."

"I was out that long?" Isaac answered incredulously.

"I…."

"Chief, we've got…. Oh. I see you've found our guest." came a distinct female voice from his armored suit. Isaac put on an air of confusion for his audience as to not arouse suspicion. Deep inside however, he was quaking in his boots. He had met AI in the past so it wasn't an innate fear of them. More rather the fear stems from what happened back then. Pushing it aside, the man in the suit or 'Chief' as he was referred to continued his verbal discussion with the AI in a more hushed tone. Isaac turned away politely, unaware of the nature of their conversation.

"Chief, who is he?" Cortana quizzed John. She had noticed a blip on his radar merely ten minutes ago and had informed her protector of the situation. The results were not what she expected nor was it he expected either.

"He says he's Isaac Eisenhower. Some marine who got bumped up to ODST status a few years back. He still thinks it's 2552."

"Did you inform him of the time gap?"

"Yes, I did."

"It sounds a bit far-fetched. As I recall, no-one should have even been on the Forward Onto Dawn. Hood specifically stated that the ship was completely empty."

"Maybe he didn't know." John shrugged his shoulders.

"That's a lame excuse and we both know it…" She countered, knowing that John agreed with her assessment.

"Look, we need all hands on deck if we want to get out of here." Cortana scoffed and turned her back on John. "I'm not saying we put our trust in him. I'm just advising we keep a close eye on him and see what happens. Alright?" John reasoned. Cortana breathed a huge sigh and turned back to face John.

"If you think it's our best option, Chief." Cortana merely replied. John begrudgingly nodded and turned to face Isaac yet again.

"Sorry about that."

"No sweat, Chief. It happens."

"Yeah… Anyway, I'm John. Though you probably know that already." John plainly stated. Of course he knew him. Everyone worth his salt knew about him. Not that he was complaining.

"Pretty much." Isaac shrugged, content to play along with the charade.

"This is Cortana, my AI. Cortana, this is Isaac Eisenhower." At his words, a blue hologram materialized before his eyes and hovered a good height from the ground. For a virtual construct, she sure seemed almost human-like. She had bluish-black shoulder length hair and matching irises to boot. Her face was quite beautiful and any male counterpart would have a hard time looking away. Her body was itself quite perfect, a masterstroke of binary code and matrices strung together. While it was uncomfortable to look at her body for extended periods of time, Isaac could not mistake the uncanny resemblance. '_No…No…No…_' his thoughts uttered yet again as he tried hard to suppress said feelings. '_Not this again._' With great control, Isaac spoke normally as best as he could with a neutral tone.

"Hello. Nice to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to see someone friendly here." At her words, Isaac was sent near the breaking point. 'She even speaks like her.' the thought haunted his waking minutes. Again, Isaac had to struggle to restrain his emotions, lest he betray himself again.

"Same here…" Isaac finally answered after a lengthy silence.

"You got any gear?" asked John.

"A pistol and some frags but I picked up a carbine from one of them on the way over here. Your handiwork, I presume?" Isaac responded, acting vague in order to wean as much info as possible.

"You saw that? Yeah, those Covenant troops ambushed us. We were just about to open the shutters to get a better view of our situation." John explained to Isaac.

"I'll cover you." He offered.

"You know how to use that thing?" John questioned, pointing a finger at the alien tech in his hands.

"Always a first time for everything…" Isaac trailed off, not wanting to finish his already misguided sentence. John simply shook his head at the green recruit and turned his full attention towards the shutter controls. Or more aptly known as blast shields… As Isaac trained his eyes on the flanks behind him, he pressed the button and let the blast doors peel back slowly.

"The good news is that these Covenant aren't outfitted like standard military. It's possible we just came across a rogue salvage ship." Cortana surmised from their encounters so far. The Grunts weren't carrying their usual methane tanks on their backs but rather using crude gas masks in their place. Jackals wielded less advanced energy shields than their military counterparts and the Elites while still deadly in a fight seemed more feral and wore less armor, revealing more of their flesh and bones. So it was to John and Cortana's surprise when the blast doors fully opened to illuminate light on the strength of the enemy.

"Or we have stumbled upon an entire Covenant fleet…" Cortana gasped out over John's comms. She was not joking. Frigates, carriers and even a ship the size of a conventional dreadnought loomed large and tall in the window. Banshees and Phantoms zoomed around in orbit, surrounding the medium sized room with aplomb.

"Maybe they haven't recognized us." John stated plainly.

"That's one possibility." She answered sarcastically.

"Hey, what's going on….?" Isaac turned around to see the spectacle for himself. Needless to say, their situation was getting way out of hand.

"Landing craft, flanking us!" Cortana yelled into John's comms. John issued the same warning to Isaac just as the windows smashed open to reveal long metallic tubes slinking into the room. Waves upon waves of Covenant troops poured from the tubes and started filling the room, firing off suppressive fire to cover their boarding party. "Enemies incoming!" shouted John over to Isaac. Isaac merely grunted and raised his weapon, ready for a fight. '_Here we go again…_'

John let loose the first volley, hammering round after round from his trusty MA5D into the oncoming horde. Several Grunts fell to the barrage, their thick blue blood smeared across the floor. The remaining survivors took cover behind several barriers, protecting them from the weathering assault. Another batch of troops edged around the flank but were met by Isaac Eisenhower standing tall above them at the top of the stairs.

"Hello there." He mocked as he chucked a frag grenade into the midst of their group. The fragmentation grenade exploded with devastating force, launching several Grunts and Jackals flying while debilitating the personal shields of the surviving Elites. Isaac calmly picked them off one by one with well-placed shots from his alien carbine, each one of them gurgling pathetically before slumping over and keeling down. Isaac took cover as another wave of Grunts lead by an Elite entered the fray, spraying scattered plasma shots in his general direction. John meanwhile with the aid of Cortana had successfully mopped up the other side when yet another batch of meat jumped in into the grinder. John complied with their death wish and sprayed suppressing fire into the crowd as he sought purchase on his own patch of metal to hide behind. A well placed overcharged plasma shot landed upon his armor, draining his personal shields and placing him in a precarious situation. Several rounds went by and thinned the crowd but the main body of the invading force rounded on John and closed in for the kill.

Isaac vault-jumped over his cover and returned fire with his pistol, the magnum rounds smashing itself against alien flesh even in the face of a plasma barrage. A Grunt rounded behind the corner and got off a lucky shot, hitting Isaac in the side. While it caused a minor burn wound, it was enough trauma to reopen his old wound. Isaac nearly collapsed in pain as blood poured from the wound and stained the floor behind him. Yet he kept moving, firing wildly into the horde. Lady Luck deigned to smile on him and by some miracle, Isaac came out on top peeking at the carnage before him. However, he had no time to rest on his laurels. From the corner of his eye, he saw the Chief pinned down by a moderate coalition of alien scumbags who were bearing down upon him. Their backs were turned to Isaac, not giving a damn about the other combatant in the room. Without a second thought, Isaac tossed aside his empty carbine and picked up another alien rifle from one of the dead mandible aliens. '_Come on, you bastards. Bring it on._'

John reloaded with grace and speed, waiting for an opportunity to strike. It just so happened that Isaac chose this moment to make his entrance onto the stage. A continuous drum of plasma rifle fire smacked into the Elites, swinging their attention to deal with the immediate threat. A small humming sound signaled the return of his shields and he peeked out of cover and let loose with his own rifle, taking down three Grunts before he clicked empty again. Isaac meanwhile tossed aside the plasma rifle when it overheated and pulled out a sharp serrated knife from his back pocket. He cried out a battle cry and leapt into battle, ignoring the traditional 'Don't bring a knife to a gunfight.' motif. The blade plunged itself deep into the first Elite, drawing a spurt of congealed purple blood and covering Isaac's face with the stuff. Before his companion could do the same, Isaac flung the knife at his temple and the blade struck true, embedding itself into the Elite's temple and sending him sprawling backwards. Just like that, silence followed and all was quiet once more. John peeked out and stepped forward, lightly patting Isaac on the shoulder as he retrieved his knife in a gruesome fashion.

"Thanks, Isaac."

"Don't mention it." Isaac replied, wiping blood off his face.

"Shall we?" John pointed, leading the way.

"After you." Isaac responded. As they made their way towards the door, he made a quick detour and pilfered a pink gun with similar looking needles protruding from its shell. Isaac was about to remove one of them when the voice returned.

"**It is not the crystal we seek. It is of a different make.**" The voice contributed, making Isaac feel slightly disappointed. '_Well, bang goes that pipe dream._' He pondered as he looted as much as possible from his deceased opponents before moving on. As the pain in his side increased, Isaac wrapped a makeshift bandage on the wound in the hopes that it would last long enough to seek actual medical care. Though with the way his luck has been turning out so far, it seemed highly unlikely.

"Move!" John yelled as another plasma ball ejected itself from a weird looking yellow launcher and exploded right where Isaac and John used to be, turning it into green goo. Isaac blindfired as John switched cover positions, attempting to flank the wave of enemies before them. With dexterous hands, he lobbed a sticky plasma grenade across the board and it landed on an Elite's webbed feet. Moments later, the grenade erupted in a hail of blue sending everyone in a 20 feet radius flying into the air, Grunts and Jackals alike. Isaac mopped up the survivors with his needler which he discovered possessed explosive qualities in large quantities as an unfortunate Grunt soon discovered.

"Where the hell are they coming from?!" he yelled back to John as they contended with another wave of death by alien.

"Probably from that cruiser up above!" the suited man yelled back. '_Great, this thing again._' Isaac contemplated. Earlier, Isaac and John were informed by the AI Cortana of a cruiser heading straight for them on an intercept trajectory. Needless to say, both soldiers decided then and there to deal with the threat before it got out of hand. What Isaac didn't look forward to was putting on a bulky suit and heading out into space to launch missiles at the ship. That part he did not like. What made it even worse was they were orbiting a planet of what they called Forerunner origin. Again, needless to say that Isaac's brain skipped that part of the information docket.

"It's dropping troops again!" he yelled as he returned fire. John also returned fire but also made to complete their primary task of launching the HE rockets from their tubes.

"Cover me, I'm going for it!" he yelled back as he slid into cover directly in front of the controls. Isaac begrudgingly acknowledged the order, letting loose a barrage of needles that stuck into several Grunts before expanding the chest cavities with a well placed boom-boom. John flipped the switch as quickly as he could and Cortana spoke happily at their success.

"You did it. Get back!" she warned to John. Stepping back, John saw the missile fly true and tear the orbiting cruiser a new one. Isaac meanwhile mopped up the stragglers and also bore witness to the carnage in the skies above. Just as he thought their troubles were over, a bright orange light shined a scanning beam over Isaac, bringing hints of confusion upon his bruised face.

"Chief…" spoke Cortana as the two of them witnessed the spectacle before them. Without warning, the alien planet opened up and revealed a light blue gravity well which began sucking things into its surface including the assembled Covenant fleet.

"So NOW can we worry about the giant metal planet?" Cortana mused sarcastically. Isaac and John needed no further warnings. With breakneck pace, both men sprinted for the escape pods while John got a brief summary of what would happen if they did not get there in time. Short answer, Nothing good…. As John leaped inside the main body of the ship, the door slammed shut behind him along with Isaac.

"Damn it! Help! Let me in!" he cried as he banged on the door, begging to be let in. Inside, Cortana was arguing with John about their next course of action.

"We need to help him." He plainly stated, his eyes scanning the room for a way to open the door.

"We can't help him. We have to go or we'll both die." Cortana argued, not willing to see John risk his life for nothing.

"We can't leave him."

"We can't save him either! We have to go!" screamed Cortana into his comm channel with a garbled tone, her rampancy slowly invading her speech patterns. With great reluctance, John picked up his rifle and raced off, saying one last prayer for Isaac as he made his way towards the escape pods.

Outside, things were going about as expected. Isaac banged on the door twice, screaming to be let in. No reply. Fuming, Isaac swore loudly and backed away from the door in the hopes of finding another way in. Once again however, Fate decided to deal him another bad hand. At that moment, the planet itself spoke to Isaac as its scanners mused over every aspect of the beleaguered veteran.

"You are the Instigator. The one who defied them. They await your head and we shall deliver." It ominously forewarned. Suddenly, the gravity well increased in force and Isaac felt his feet slip from the floor. Grabbing on to dear life onto a nearby barrier, he tried to fight back against the gravitational force pulling him in. The tips of his fingers sought purchase on as much hard surface as it could onto even as it slowly slipped from his grasp. As he contemplated making another desperate move to stay alive, a dislodged piece of metal came flying at him and he had no way of moving out of his flight plan.

"No…No…No…" he cried to no avail. The metal projectile slammed into him, forcing him to release his grip upon the barrier and sending him flying into the abyss of the gravity well and into an unforeseen future…

FLASHBACK

The year was 2515. The UNSC were fighting a stagnate war between the insurrectionists that according to more popular propaganda, a threat to our very way of life. Tensions amongst the general populace was at an all-time high and the military were desperately seeking a way to combat this menace. Enter Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, age 23. The UNSC's most brilliant mind to date and a strong advocate in human evolution when she wasn't helping the UNSC with special projects. At the time, she had her own idea for a super-soldier program that would benefit mankind greatly in the coming years and keep humanity strong in the face of renewed belief in the theory that they were not alone. In the meantime, she was content in resolving menial tasks by herself. That is until today….

"Hey Dr. Halsey?" spoke a nearby corporal.

"What is it? Can you not see how busy I am today?" she rudely answered, irritated at being disturbed at such a crucial stage in her work.

"It's the new scientist you asked for. He comes highly recommended, ma'am." He replied.

"By whom?" She asked impatiently.

"According to the dossier, a lot of people. Shall I bring him in?"

"Yes, now go away…" she shooed the bemused marine away as she turned her focus back to her work. Moments later, a loud cough from the guard signaled the new arrival. Setting down her notes, she walked towards the man before her and extended her hand to him.

"Welcome to the UNSC's research lab. I'm Catherine Halsey and I'm the chief scientist here. You'll be working directly under me as the dossier recommends. Keep in mind that failure is not tolerated. Here, you follow my instructions to the letter. Is that clear, Mr…." Halsey trailed, waiting for the man before her to introduce himself. One wide grin and a warm handshake later and she received a reply from him.

"The name is Ryan. Ryan Eisenhower at your service, Ms. Halsey." Isaac lied through his gritted teeth, dredging up the name of the brother he once had along with the agonizing memories that followed…

**Hello there. This is quite exciting. I decided to entrench Isaac into the lore of the story. If the earlier description in the chapter did not make clear, Isaac existed before the arrival of the Covenant. I have it all planned out in my head right now but I hope to alter some weak bits as I go along. Sorry about the quality of the ending. Wanted to get it out before I watch the VGAs. Wooo! Anyway, Halo fans… Please review, like and favorite this story and leave any suggestions on ideas for future chapters. Until then, see ya….**


	2. Requiem, Home Of Secrets

**Chapter 2 : Requiem, Home Of Secrets**

**Here we are with Chapter 2. I promise this chapter will be much better than the previous one. It'll take more time since I don't want to rush it like before so by the time I finish this, it might be next year. Ah, well… On to the madness…**

_"My brother is an… unique character, do you not agree?"_ – Ryan Eisenhower.

FLASHBACK

"So Mr. Eisenhower, could you please repeat your expertise for me one more time?" Halsey asked as she hastily scribbled several observations onto a piece of paper. '_Great, if dealing with those bureaucrats in Command and having them send ONI officers to check up on me wasn't bad enough, I have to take care of another slack-jawed recruit._' She mentally projected herself throttling the throats of the stuck-up higher-ups for denying her proposal of the Spartan-II program. Wisely, she chose to express said anger in a more productive manner starting with grilling the new guy before her. As she reluctantly averted her attention towards the man crossing his legs before her, she set aside her research papers into one pile and awaited the answer to her question.

"Well, Ms. Halsey. I have been told by my mentors that I have a certain aptitude for weapon-crafting and digital constructing." Isaac replied enthusiastically. After all, he was in high spirits at his second chance at a fresh lease on life. It may not be his own home but considering the alternative, he'd gladly take whatever bones were thrown his way.

"We have no use for weapon smithing here. We leave that to the R&D guys down the hall. But digital constructs… You mean to say AI design?" Catherine paused mid-sentence and raised a wary eyebrow, her curiosity piqued.

"Yes indeed. I have made the effort in studying AI matrixes and the programming necessary for said design. In fact, I have been researching several new ways to create smart and dumb AI, particularly the method of flash-cloning before my recruitment."

"Flash-cloning a human brain? What you speak of is highly regarded as a pipe dream by most people here. Even if the flash-cloning succeeded, the brain would simply not take to the CIM process." She rolled off the top of her head.

"Well, ma'am. You did say that you were looking for innovation. Here it is." Isaac stretched out his hands in a clear gesture of smug pride. And Halsey ate it up like raw meat at a butcher's store.

"I see. Well, if that is the case…. Welcome aboard, Mr. Eisenhower. I'm sure this will be a wondrous collaboration." Halsey extended her hand and Isaac shook it with a beaming smile, unaware of the ramifications of said course of action.

If only he knew…

END FLASHBACK

Isaac's eyes fluttered open and shut as smoke filled his lungs. The air became thick with black smoke and a suffocating lack of pure oxygen to breathe in. His eyes flung open, his red irises taking stock of his surroundings. It didn't look good. Fires erupted all around him, burning what little remained of the ill-fated ship. Frayed electrical wires cackled with raw electricity, disconnected from whatever systems it once served to obey. Groaning in pain, Isaac looked down and saw to his dismay a large chunk of metal pinning his legs to the surprisingly soft ground. '_Wait, aren't we on an alien planet? Why does the ground feel like home?_' Tossing that thought process aside for the time being, he focused his efforts into freeing his legs from his metallic prison. With all his might, Isaac strained his muscles in an attempt to shove the gigantic block aside. No such success followed and his arms went limp after an exhausting ten tries to move it. '_Why can't I move this? I should be able to. Haven't had any trouble before._' He thought. Reason finally dug into his brain. '_Of course. I'm bleeding. No person worth his salt can last long from blood loss._ _So stupid of you, Isaac._' Where once he wanted to resign himself to fate, now he just felt annoyed. Fate wouldn't let him die even if he wanted to, so there was no point in praying for the sweet release of death. Disgruntled, Isaac crossed his tired arms together and awaited luck to play its cards.

As it turns out, luck's cards were just nearby. Following a disastrous run to reach the escape pods which was all for naught when the hull burst from the powerful gravitational force pulling them in, wrecking the pods along with. John-117 had tried to cling onto dear life as the ship was tugged in only to be knocked unconscious by a stray piece of debris. This was followed by his awakening on the Forerunner planet. As his eyelids fluttered open behind the helmet, he awoke to the sight of Cortana hovering above him. Grabbing his trusty rifle beside him, he asked the most glaring question.

"Where are we?"

"Checking coordinate data." Came Cortana's cool, calm and collected reply.

"We have asked to give up your family, your childhood, your future…" came the garbled voice resembling Halsey in her younger years. Shaking his head in confusion, he extended his hand and let his left hand relax and curl open. Cortana appeared before him, her face slightly flustered and worried which instantly aroused John's suspicion.

"Cortana…"

"I'm sorry. It's the crash. I'm fine." She tried to reassure her protector, yet failing to throw off his unique instincts.

"Something was wrong even before we left the Dawn" He countered, drawing an immediate denial from Cortana.

"Chief, really, I'm fine." The words came out in a distorted tone unlike her original voice. To say John was not at all convinced would be a grave understatement.

"Cortana…" he pressed on. Cortana put her head down in defeat and took a short breath before relenting and spilling her troubles.

"I was put into service 8 years ago." She replied sadly to John's face. A look of confusion echoed on it, prompting Cortana to elaborate on the matter. A matter which she did not enjoy bringing up.

"AIs deteriorate after 7, Chief." The gravity of the situation finally dawned on the super-soldier eliciting a one-word answer spoken with such firm determination and resolve.

"Halsey."

"Chief…" she spoke in a low tone, seeing the desperation and the lengths in which he was willing to go to for her.

"We need to find Halsey." The Chief reiterated, drawing a moan from Cortana.

"Chief… Please!" she pleaded. It was no use. Not even Halsey herself could counter this problem in the past. What would change that today?

"She made you. She can fix you." The Chief figured. After all, she knew how Cortana worked. Logic dictated that she'd know how to fix her, right?

"I won't recover from Rampancy, Chief." She sadly intoned, seeing the truth in the matter even while John still flailed about looking for a solution.

"If we can just get back to Earth and find Halsey, she can fix this." The Chief spoke, determined to save the one thing he had come to rely on.

"Don't make a girl a promise you can't keep." Cortana repeated her original words to him. While he did keep his promise of going back for her, this was one promise he just could not fulfill no matter how much he tried to. As the words tried to sink in into his brain, Cortana spotted movement above her with her radar.

"We need to move." John needed no further prodding. Readying his weapon, he set off across the graveyard of ships into an uncertain destination as his mind hardened in its resolve to see Cortana safe and alive. '_She has to be… She just has to…_'

"How many Covenants ships came in with us?" he asked as they passed another wrecked Phantom, the purple metal burning away in the wintery-like veil.

"Plenty… Why?" Cortana asked, thankfully without the distorted tone creeping in again.

"We still need a ride home." John replied in the same flaccid military tone as if he was speaking to a drill sergeant. As they kept on walking, they heard a low groan dispel the uneasy silence surrounding them. Cortana noticed movement on her radar as the sound grew louder.

"Over there!" she highlighted the location on the Chief's HUD with a handy waypoint. Sprinting at breckneck pace, he soon came face to face with Isaac pinned underneath a piece of metal.

"Oh, god…" came her voice with astonishment. It took all of three seconds to uncover the source of her surprise. To John's horror, Isaac had a sizeable wound in his midsection which steadily dripped blood all over his once clean attire and staining his hands as he tried desperately to apply pressure to the grievous injury.

"Hang in there, kid." John assured the wounded man, eliciting a smirk from the green recruit.

"Can't go anywhere as you can see…" Isaac joked as he used his free hand to point out his predicament.

"At least you have a sense of humor." John pointed out, deciding to play along. After all, this situation did not necessarily have to be so grim.

"Just trying to lighten the mood, sir." Isaac jested, eliciting a low chuckle from the super soldier. With his enhanced strength and reflexes, Isaac was free in no time. The stomach wound however was another matter altogether.

"Cortana, you got something?"

"Long horizontal gash across the abdominal region. No vital organs or arteries hit. You're quite lucky to be alive, Private." She coolly answered. Isaac snorted at her clinical method to such a topic.

"Tell me something I don't know, lady."

"Chief, there's a first aid kit over there in the wreckage. With luck, it should have what we need." Cortana noted, placing a waypoint over by a pile of rubble and metal scraps. John acknowledged the order and mechanically shuffled over to the designated location, eventually pulling out a banged up medical chest in his arms. Isaac tried to relax as John applied the antiseptic and bandage the wound with expert hands. One pop of a painkiller later and Isaac's labored breathing started to settle into a more suitable rhythm.

"Alright, up you go. Easy there." John meekly spoke as he tossed Isaac's arm over his shoulder and propped him up against a slab of stone behind them. Isaac struggled at first in keeping his feet steady but eventually got the hang of it, even if his legs still wobbled from time to time. The blood appeared to have stopped oozing out but it didn't mean he was out of the woods yet.

"You alright?" he asked concernedly. Isaac grunted and defied his expectations.

"I'm fine." Isaac reassured as fresh pain shot through his veins like he was taking drugs.

"You're sure?" John raised an eyebrow within the confines of his helmet, visible to none but Cortana.

"With all due respect, hand me a damn gun, sir." Isaac darkly replied. Without another word, Isaac snatched a spare M395 rifle off the ground, dusted off the dust with vigor and walked off in the general direction of the canyon exit. John and Cortana observed all of this in amusement and made to follow.

"He would have made a good Spartan." John pondered aloud to Cortana.

"That he would, Chief. That he would…" her cool voice replied in response. And the trio made their way out of the wreckage and into the true heart of this alien planet…

As their footsteps left the wintery veil of their crash site, Isaac and John had to visibly shield their eyes as they entered a vast canyon of lush green fauna dotted by strange metallic structures with orange lines enveloping every facet of its design. The cliffs and the stream of water that cut through the open space looked almost human-like. Undoubtedly, Isaac's mind was filled with questions, one of which he decided to ask even with the risk factor involved.

"What is this place?" Isaac exclaimed incredulously as his eyes took in the splendor of his environment.

"It's a Forerunner planet. They are well known for constructing giant infrastructures of this magnitude. What you see before you is the ecology system they implemented onto said installation. It resembles basic fauna back home on Earth." Cortana explained.

"Do you have to be so clinical about everything?" Isaac mused as her words lowered the splendor just a little.

"It is in my programming. I can't help it." Cortana shot back with a calm, collected tone.

"With your human attitude, it's hard to believe." Isaac chuckled aloud. '_Then again, human beings are the most complex creatures we'll ever know._'

"Come on, we need to keep moving." John decided to break up the brief interlude.

"On your orders, sir." Isaac grimaced, readying his DMR and giving the all-go signal. As the trio clambered into the great expanse before them, their eyes flittered past their immediate surroundings, watching the shadows for unseen enemies. Yet the journey through the valley towards a looming metallic spire with the same orange outlines was eerily empty of enemies. Save for the occasional gust of wind, there was no other sound.

"I don't like this, sir. Seems a bit… quiet. Almost too quiet." Isaac spoke after an extended period of silence. All the while, their boots kept on walking and thumping against the ground.

"You're right, Private. It does seem odd. Keep on your guard, Chief. No telling what's out there." Cortana chimed in over John's comms. John gave a curt nod to the warning and aimed the rifle at a nearby clump of bushes. Isaac did the same on the other side, his rifle swinging to meet the direction of his choosing.

"Cortana, see if you can hack any communication arrays in the area. Maybe we can find out where they are and get us a ride home."

"On it, Chief. Scanning local frequencies." Cortana went into AI mode as Isaac so eloquently put it.

"All clear on this end, sir." Isaac said as he averted his attention from the shrubs for a few seconds.

"Chief, multiple Covenant ships are heading in the direction of that tower over there. Marking it on your map." A diamond waypoint appeared over the tower on the Chief's HUD. But that wasn't the only thing that appeared in the sky.

"Sir, we hae problems." Isaac muttered as his eyes grew wide with terror. Looking up, it was hard not to see why. Massive alien ships broke through the clouds at a glacial pace and made to dock nearby the Forerunner structure. From those, a sizeable force of Banshees and Phantoms ejected from the hulls of their dreadnoughts and carriers, flying down to the surface in an organized line. Isaac and John simply watched for several moments the ferocity of their enemy before Cortana brought both of them flying back into reality.

"Chief, we need to get there, double time." And there was no doubt to her words. The Covenant's presence was enough to warrant an all-out sprint towards the tower. So it came to be that Isaac ran as fast as he could behind the Chief who looked like he was going at Mach-speeds. This brings back memories, he thought as his mind went back to those days in the lab, running around to meet new demands and deadlines every day under Catherine's tutelage. How those days seem so far away… And thank God for that…

**Okay, so this chapter turned out much shorter than I would like. I'm sorry. Reading the amount of views this things gets and imagining other stories getting the same amount in half the time tends to stop all notion of writing more for this. Yet still I remain for the few people who actually read this. I promise next chapter will be longer than this one… Just how much longer I don't know. Anyway, see you guys soon…**

**P.S: I would like very much to know what I can do to improve this fanfic. Thus I need people to communicate their thoughts about it more frequently. So, meaning more PM or reviews please…. Thank you…**


	3. Pandora's Box

**Chapter 3 : Pandora's Box**

**Well after that dismal showing that I tried to call a chapter, I decided to try and improve this particular one. At least that's the plan. But you know how plans are… They don't always go as planned. Anyway, keep on reading and providing feedback. Onwards then…**

"_For every being of light, there exists a being of dark. And should either side lose one, another shall rise to take its place. It is the natural way of the universe." _– Isaac Eisenhower

"We're here." A triumphant John jovially announced to Isaac as the former soldier shuffled up beside him with raspy, heavy and deep breaths. Clutching his chest and feeling his heart beat ominously with every thud on his ribcage, Isaac spared a glance skyward to the alien tower looming high above them. Catching as much fresh oxygen as he could into his lungs, he finally gasped out a reply.

"Looks quite menacing." He observed. Isaac was right by any stretch. Even any scientist blinded by the implications of alien technology would no doubt point out the scary atmosphere that blanketed the site. Fortunately, they were not scientists.

"Multiple contacts inside the structure. Whatever they're looking for, we need to find first." Cortana stated imperatively. John acknowledged those orders and leveled his rifle at the ready, setting off to find the nearest entrance. A reluctant Isaac followed behind, also readying his rifle for even the scant smell of conflict that may loom ahead. Their footsteps felt warm on top of the cold alien metal that coated the ramp. Just above it was a wide open space with several cover points scattered about. John gave a non-verbal signal to Isaac who received it with grim acceptance and edged around the sides, scanning the entranceway nearby. Moving from cover to cover, Isaac was about to hop over to the next one when he saw the shimmer of a cloak exit the entryway followed closely by five more. Hastily, Isaac put his hand to the comm link that John had provided for him earlier during the initial journey to the tower.

"Heads-up… I see six hostiles coming out. Be warned, they're using camo, sir." He urgently whispered into the earpiece.

"Understood, Private. Moving out…" John clutched his rifle a tad bit tighter as he cautiously creeped around the wide open space, sticking to the sanctuary of cover to keep him hidden. All the while, his eyes kept a close eye on the scanner, which Cortana manned with acute precision.

"I see them, Chief. Be careful." Cortana intoned, her voice slightly garbled.

"I always am." John said to Cortana. As his mind focused on the mission at hand, part of it went to delving deeper into the mystery that was his relationship with Cortana.

Since the fall of Reach, Cortana has been by his side through thick and thin. Off the top of his head, he could still remember her quick-thinking that led him to avoid firing Installaton 04 and potentially wiping out all organic life in the galaxy. Her sacrifice and her subsequent capture by the Flood Gravemind on Installation 05 or the Delta Halo as it was known back then. Her resolve in fighting back its attempts to determine her innermost secrets, most of which could have drastic consequences for humanity and helping him see an end to the Flood once and for all. '_She's been there for me all the time and from the beginning. Not many people I can say have done the same._' So it was no surprise that John was adamant in finding a way to fix Cortana's rampancy. It seemed only fair to have her back as she had his so many times in the past. But that thought was dwarfed by a more worrying thought. '_Maybe we could… be more than friends?_' That seemed unlikely as he pondered it but then again, miracles do happen.

And here he was, begging for a miracle to save a companion he has come to love and care for…

Little did he know that the exact same thought process was running through Cortana's binary code amidst her other tasks at hand. From the moment of her selection, she knew that John or Master Chief or Spartan 117 was special amongst the surviving Spartans. As she explicitly mentioned to herself during her time in High Charity, it was his luck that saw them through the trials thus far alongside his military training. Perhaps said luck would apply itself to his goal of facing down rampancy and saving her life. Yet even as this glimmer of hope sparkled in her eyes, it faded back again with the knowledge that even Halsey herself could not solve this Elizabethan hurdle. What hope did John have? Consigned to reach the stage of acceptance for both herself and John, she averted her attention back to the task at hand as she mentally buried that particular thought to another day.

Isaac raised his rifle and aimed it squarely at a shimmering mass just nearby from his position, ready to fire on John's signal. Taking one hand off his weapon, he reached into his belt and yanked out a standard fragmentation grenade and readied himself to lob the deadly projectile.

"On your go, sir." Isaac mumbled over the comms.

"Standby." came the reply in a distracted tone. The seconds passed as the tension rose in the air. The hostiles, unaware of the holy hell about to rain on them kept their eyes on the horizon, scanning its beautiful scenery for any aerial assault.

"Three." One of the shimmering figures rubbed its gun to scrape the dirt on it.

"Two." Isaac pulled the pin and kept the grenade primed and cooking in his hand.

"One." John punctuated every word with careful precision as Cortana maintained his radar.

"NOW!" He yelled over the comms. Isaac grimaced and lobbed the grenade over the banister into the cluster of camouflaged troops. Before any of them could react, Isaac whipped out of cover and expertly landed a clean shot on the airborne projectile, not content to allow the fuse to carry out its due process. The grenade exploded with a heavy force, disrupting the cloaking devices and sending the Elites off their feet and head first into the ground. Not wanting to waste an opportunity, both soldiers moved in and double-tapped each of the prone figures in the head, giving none of them a chance to recuperate from the debilitating strike.

"Clear!" Isaac shouted as the smoke from the grenade died down. Six bodies lay neatly before them, blood splatters covering the once pristine floor. Isaac wiped some sweat off his forehead as he watched the scene unfold before him.

"Nothing on the radar. Keep your eyes open, Chief. I get the feeling that isn't it." Cortana mused as she watched the carnage from the Chief's visor.

"Acknowledged. Let's move." John motioned to Isaac to follow. Together, both of them sauntered forth into the tower with caution, leaving the vast beauty of the landscape behind them…

As both of them entered the room, Isaac could not help but stare in awe once again at the splendor of the alien architecture. Bright orange and blue lines dotted every facet, every surface of the tower's illustrious room. Not only that, Isaac noted its clean slate and matte look. So clean-cut and spotless to the point that it bugged him out just a little bit, drawing comparisons to the clean-cut state of the Scarsion. As his eyes took in the place, he failed to notice a whizz of plasma rounds connect with the wall behind him until it was too late. Fortunately, John was kind enough to warn him beforehand.

"Contact!" he screamed over the comms. Isaac instinctively raced for the nearest possible cover and whipped out his trusty rifle, ready to return fire. John and Isaac spent the next few minutes exchanging fire with a sizeable force of alien scumbags. Over the course of said time, several Grunts and Jackals fell to their combined fire. On the other hand, the troops at hand were still considerable and they were closing in fast. Isaac groaned as he heard his gun click empty again for the sixth time. As he patted down his pockets, he groaned yet again.

"I'm out!" he screamed to John.

"I'm running low too." He replied.

"We need a new plan, Chief. We need to find out what they are doing here." Cortana said over the comm. Her garbled voice came back into play, stressing an already strained John.

"Okay, we need to…" he began before Cortana cut him off.

"Wait. Isaac's FOF sensor is moving towards them. What is he doing?" John peeked out of cover in confusion, only to be replaced by sheer shock at the scene before him.

Isaac had tossed aside his rifle and pulled out his long serrated blade from its handle, its sides still fresh with the blood of his enemies. Taking a drastic sprint of faith, he ran out of cover and sprinted pell-mell into the fray, ignoring the bursts of plasma and explosive needles hurtling in his general direction. All he saw were the figurative whites of their eyes as every alien in the contingent turned to face the mad menace with every gun they could bring to bear. One by one, fear took hold in their eyes. The first to break were the footsoldiers. The Grunts panicked even with their leaders beside them and ran away in every direction, seeing the conflict as pointless at this point. The next to go were the Jackals. Their shields lowered in a panic and their reptilian legs scampered away to find a safe hiding hole to crawl under and weather the storm heading their way. The Elites on the other hand refused to buckle and continued their barrage, all of which failed to connect with even a sinew of Isaac's flesh. '_My turn, you alien dirtbags._' Went Isaac's inner thoughts.

As he reached the first Elite, he raised his knife and brought it crashing down on the face, skewering its mandibles one by one like a sadistic sort of shishkebab in Turkey. Howling in pain, the Elite whipped around with its extremities and nearly hit the agile foe, who dodged at the right time. Pressing onwards, he yanked the knife right out and plunged it back into its knee, bringing the lumbering beast down to the ground. This time, there was no chance in crying out in pain as Isaac dexterously clambered aboard the Elite and pulled his head upwards to the ceiling. One quick swipe and blood gushed like a fountain from the Elite's neck, its final gurgles a song of horror to the surviving Elite. Still reeling in shock, the Elite whipped out his energy sword from its side, the flash of electricity crackling from the blade amusing the fighter.

"Ooh, lookie here… The alien has a new toy." He mocked eerily. The Elite howled and dashed forward, making the first move. The lunge was bound to miss as the blade bounced harmlessly against the wall, eliciting another response from Isaac.

"Missed, ya big nutball…" The Elite howled in rage and made to strike again. Isaac nimbly rolled out of its warpath and gave the alien a boost with a well-timed kick to the back, causing the Elite to smack against the wall with a bone-crushing thud. Again, Isaac saw his opening and took it, stabbing the alien in the back. Isaac did not stop there, continuing to hammer home his deadly weapon into the alien's back repeatedly. Finally after a brutal two minutes, Isaac relented and let the cadaver slide down the remaining length of the wall and slump pathetically onto the floor, its back punctured by multiple stab wounds. As the conflict died down, the only thing that remained were the whimpering troops that wisely fled the scene.

"All clear, sir." Isaac spoke to an amazed John. John could only nod in silence, picking up his rifle and scavenging ammunition from the corpses. Even Cortana could not believe what she had just seen. Considering her track record with the Chief, it was a tall order to accomplish. Isaac and John ambled onwards, deciding to ignore the terrified hostiles. As John accurately described,

"There's no need to add to the bloodshed." Isaac agreed to this sentiment. He had seen enough dying to last him a lifetime.

Further on into the tower, Isaac and John finally stumbled upon the main center of the tower. Cortana chirped over the comms with trepidation in her words.

"Chief, my scans indicate that we are near a local Cartographer. We can use it to pin down our exact location."

"I hear a 'but' coming in." John replied, noticing the change in tone.

"It seems the Covenant have found it first." Cortana said, pinging his radar to emphasize his point. Several red dots appeared on the HUD, surrounding the mission objective.

"Any ideas?" John asked, hoping to avoid a prolonged conflict.

"You know I always do." Cortana gave her winning grin, lightening the mood and evaporating any leftover tension in the air. As they neared the Cartographer, Isaac placed a quick finger to his mouth and motioned to a cover position. Heeding the advice, John took position on one end of the doorway as quietly as possible. Peeking from his safe haven, he soon found out why. Unlike the previous engagement, the Covenant apparently saw fit to assign a pair of Hunters along with a detachment of Elites to complement their firepower. John sighed as Cortana's voice came roaring back over the comms.

"That looks like trouble."

"That it does. Anything you can do to tip the odds in our favor?"

"Maybe. Give me a second." Cortana figuratively tapped away at various surfaces before finally replying with a sense of relief.

"Got it. I can disable the Hunter's arm cannons for a little while. It won't last long, Chief." Cortana warned.

"I'll take what I can get. Isaac?" John nodded in agreement to her assessment.

"Yeah, sir?" Isaac responded with a grim tone.

"You locked and loaded?" John asked.

"On your go, sir." Isaac leveled his rifle at the closest hostile and gave the all clear signal.

"Program ready to activate, Chief." Cortana coolly answered.

"Do it, Cortana." John grimaced as he too readied his trusty rifle.

"Running program."

"NOW!" he screamed over the comms. On his go, the two soldiers peeked out of cover and let loose a volley of rapid fire, taking down two unsuspecting Elites in one go. At that point, the rest of the company swiveled about to face their attackers, save for two burly muscle-bound armored alien who rechecked their plasma cannons. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Isaac released a volley of explosive needles from his needler into an nearby Elite, sending the alien hurtling back from the force of the explosion and widening his chest cavity. The remaining Elites escalated their fire in response, forcing him to take cover.

"They got me pinned down. I can't get a shot on those Hunters!" Isaac yelled over to John. John merely gave a curt nod and signaled for suppressive fire. '_Finally, something to do._' thought Isaac as he reloaded his weapon. One swish of John's bulky finger and Isaac peeked out of cover.

"Hey, bastards! I'm over here!" Isaac yelled, drawing their attention. He held down the foreign trigger and blindly fired into the crowd. Pink, explosive crystals bounced off every surface, shattering in some cases and bouncing off in others. The Elites, not wanting to risk exposure wisely kept their heads in cover. The Hunters on the other hand took the volley with gusto, lumbering forward. To his surprise, many of the crystals simply shattered upon impact on the Hunter's armor. Some penetrated but did little damage to offset the waste of ammo. Soon Isaac was completely spent and he too ducked back under cover, switching to his DMR. A quick glance revealed a lack of ammunition, sparing him only seven rounds to fight them.

Fortunately, John was on hand to dispense his own brand of hard-pounding action. Having sneaked up behind their position around the side, John shocked the contingent of aliens by leaping aboard one of the Hunters and trying frantically to control the plasma cannon mounted to its arm. The Hunter itself rumbled back and forth across the room, trying desperately to shake off this armored pestilence, who held on for dear life.

"Cortana, deactivate the program." John ordered to Cortana.

"On it, Chief." Cortana quickly replied, her code already swinging into action. John grabbed onto the cannon and with great effort, steered it in the direction of the other Hunter. One quick pull of the trigger and the Hunter exploded in a green and blue haze of plasma, sending orange goo flying and decorating the room even further. By now, the Elites were swinging about to face John aboard his Hunter and they clearly did not understand the concept of friendly fire as they fired indiscriminately at John, accidentally wounding the Hunter instead. John did not relent and returned the salvo with his own plasma cannon. Soon enough, a small group of Elites were whittled down to just two. Yet these two managed to finally bring down the gigantic behemoth with a well-timed shot to its unarmored parts. The beast came tumbling down and unfortunately took John along for the ride, crushing him under the weight of the massive corpse. He could feel the low thum of the Elites' feet shambling towards his prone body and the hum of their Storm rifles as they lined up their shots with his head. '_This is it. My luck's finally run out._' came his ponderings.

"Come on, Chief. Get up." Cortana felt helpless at that very moment. There was nothing she could do this time. No machinery to hack. No lucky debris. Just plain ol' guns and little else. Cortana waited for the moment to pass, if only so she could mourn gradually.

But that moment never came. From out of nowhere, two shots rang out in the air, dropping both Elites like a sack of potatoes, their once deadly weaponry now harmless clattering far away from John. As he squinted, he made out the figure of Isaac standing a few feet from him, clutching a smoking DMR and seeing two shell casings drop to the floor. If this wasn't a miracle, John didn't know what was.

"Need a hand there, sir?" Isaac asked, extending his arm towards John. John gingerly grabbed ahold of it, pulling him from under the gigantic carcass of the Hunter.

"Now we're even, Private." John joked amusingly.

"That we are." Isaac nodded in reply.

"Thank you, Private. That was well-played." Cortana thanked Isaac warmly.

"I aim to please, Ma'am." He gave a salute any drill sergeant would be proud of. "Now, shall we go get what we came here for?" John stepped forth towards the machine and placed his hand upon the pedestal. Having already done this before, it felt natural. After all, it wasn't his first rodeo into unknown territory. But something else happened this time. Something unexpected…

The device hummed with pure energy at his touch, emanating a bright orange light across the expanse of the room. Its light enveloped both John and Isaac in its glow. Time began to slow down to a crawl till only Isaac himself was left standing in confusion. John stood ramrod stiff in his normal position, his arm still outstretched and lightly touching the cartographer. Dust particles fluttered in the air, its intricacies visible and on display. The very air itself bore no motion, content to drift lazily in the river of time. Isaac was about to question the situation he found himself in when an ominous voice arose.

"The Instigator has come to our home." It spoke eerily, its voice echoing throughout the room.

"Who are you? What are you?" Isaac yelled, spinning around in an attempt to pinpoint the source of the voice.

"We are the children of your folly. Do you not remember them?" The voice entitled with a clinical tone.

"Screw them! They can go to hell!" Isaac bellowed, not caring if John and Cortana could hear every word.

"Are you not their prophet?" It cooed menacingly.

"I'm no-one messiah! You hear me!?" Isaac retorted, his face clearly expressing his disgust at the mention of such holy words.

"Pity… Such a worthless creature bestowed such a high honor. It is truly astonishing how their gifts are wasted on you!" The voice commented, enraging Isaac to the breaking point.

"Go to hell, you sack of shit! When I find you, I'll make you very sorry for what you've done!"

"By all means, continue to fight against the inevitable. Besides, it is what you are." The voice retorted. Isaac felt a gnawing pain in his head and soon enough, the voice dragged his subconscious deep into his own mind. Isaac found himself in the familiar environs of the limitless room representing his psyche. However instead of its usual occupant, there sat a lonely woman in a rocking chair cradling something in her hands. Her back was turned to Isaac and gave off an air of tension and terror Isaac did not know he possessed. Creeping ever closer to the lone woman, her melodious words pounded into the air.

"Hush, little baby, don't say a word, Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird.

And if that mockingbird don't sing, Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring.

And if that diamond ring turns to brass, Mama's gonna buy you a looking glass.

And if that looking glass gets broke, Mama's gonna give you a knifing curl,

And if that knifing curl don't squirm, Mama's gonna chop you a nice big skull,

And if that skull don't scream enough, Mama's gonna buy you a nice looking gun.

And if that gun don't kill us now, Mama's gonna be very upset right now.

And if Mama is very upset, Well I guess you know what happens next."

The figure turned in her chair and abstractly stared daggers at the new presence in her domain. At least that was what should have happened. Instead Isaac screamed in horror at the bloody corpse sitting in the chair. Her eyes were completely gouged out, leaving nothing but bloody stains pouring from her eye sockets. A mockingbird stood atop her head, poking away at the black empty holes that once held her pristine eyes. One of her hands was clutched around a sharp shard of glass, dripping with red liquid and forming a congealed bloodstain on the floor. On that very same hand laid a clear-cut diamond ring. Yet its brass color illustrated the rust that had spread from said ring across her hand, giving a garish look to an already horrifying figure. And comfortably snuggled in her other arm was a small child wrapped in a blue blanket, the one aspect untouched by the blood and rust. Isaac could only gape in horror as the figure stretched out its elongated fingers and cooed creepily,

"Join us, Isaac. Mommy misses you…."

"NO! NO! MOM!" Isaac cried out as he dashed forth to save her. Too late he reached as the figure who bore a striking resemblance to his mother shoved the shard of glass into her own neck, causing a gush of blood to pour like a fountain, staining the psychologically damaged man. All he could do was weep uncontrollably and cradle his facsimile of his mother in his arms in the dark room, not giving a care for the word what lay before him. Once again, Isaac Eisenhower was broken. And there was more to come…

**Finally created a worthwhile chapter that didn't make me cut my own ears off. I admit it's much shorter but I hope to meet my 6k+ chapter stride later on. For now, you got this. Sorry for the delay since I'm binging on a round of Dishonored and Borderlands 2 ever since my exams finished. I'll be back as soon as I can. Now to go find me some orange guns….**


	4. The Journey Forth

**Chapter 4 : The Journey Forth**

**Well, I'm back to writing as quick as possible. Not really much to say except let us carry on with the story. Oh, and if you're a fan of Starcraft, go read Behind The Painted Walls by izwan. It's a good read, I promise that much. Now then, let us begin…**

"_Victory is not without cost and indeed mistakes are not without consequences." _– Isaac Eisenhower.

"Isaac!" The first cry gave way to fluttery eyes and slight motion in the facial muscles. For all that, it did little to jolt the hardened veteran from his eternal slumber.

"Isaac!" The second one finally brought about a significant change. Isaac's eyes started to gain clarity of his surroundings. However, he could still not feel his extremities in the slightest.

"Isaac, wake up!" The final outburst finally pulled him out from the void of his nightmare. His eyes swung open in a panic, his heart beat at a breakneck pace and he howled loudly into the air.

"Easy… Easy… You're alright. You're fine." came a commanding voice. Looking up, Isaac made out John, still clad in his green armored suit. No doubt behind that opaque visor laid some concerned eyes staring right back him. Aside from that, his blue hologram AI companion Cortana was also standing above him. Her eyes too held a concerned look but one also tempered with a glance of curiosity mixed in. Isaac groaned as he rubbed his head in abominable pain. Wasting no time, Isaac plainly asked,

"How long was I out?"

"An hour or two. You were mumbling in your state, Private." came Cortana's smooth reply.

"Sorry about that."

"It's quite alright. What I'm more concerned is the effect the Cartographer might have had on you." Cortana mused as she placed a finger to her lips in broad and genuine confusion.

"I feel…fine. At least for now…" Isaac trailed off, trying to reassure both himself and the sentient AI debating his fate.

"Can you move?" asked a worried John.

"Yeah, I think so. Sorry about that, sir." Isaac groaned as his feet sought purchase on stable ground and struggled to hold his body upright.

"Apology accepted, Private." John chuckled at the badly timed joke.

"So, did we get what we wanted?" Isaac enthused with trepidation.

"That and more. You want the good news or the bad news?" John instantly fell into a military drawl as if Isaac was at boot camp on day one.

"I guess either one doesn't sound particularly fun at this late stage, sir." He eventually decided to believe.

"Hold still, Private. It's hard to scan your injuries if you keep squirming like that." Cortana perked up her voice over the comms, drawing parallels in Isaac's mind to his mother.

"Sorry." he shot back over the comms.

"Good news is that we found a communication relay nearby. The Cartographer pinged just after you passed out." John cut off the awkward conversation, more content with returning to the more pressing matter at hand.

"Okay… What's the bad news?"

"The UNSC Infinity is on its way here." John plainly stated without stopping.

"That doesn't sound like bad news. More like awesome news." Isaac spoke with a beaming smile. 'Rescue's on their way. That's some good news at least.' All that enthusiasm evaporated instantaneously upon glancing at John's troubled look. The fact that his stance screamed desperation clinched the issue.

"Eh, what's wrong, sir?"

"They don't know about the gravity well."

"Wait… That means…" Isaac trailed off, already well aware of the ramifications of his words.

"They'll be stuck here. Just like us, Private." John finished grimly and with a hint of concern creeping its way into his gruff voice.

"Shit…" Isaac swore as fresh pain throbbed in his head.

"We need to warn them and soon before it's too late." John accurately stated their primary directive at this juncture.

"Well, I'm ready, sir. Lead the way." He replied with grim acceptance.

"You sure about this, Private? Your wounds aren't exactly healed up properly." John mused, pointing towards his bandaged torso.

"I'm fine, sir. Shouldn't be more than a simple walk, right?" Isaac reassured. '_Considering my luck however, that's highly unlikely._' went his mind instead.

"He appears to be fine, Chief. We need all the help we can muster and we're running out of time." Cortana blatantly spoke, drawing flak from John in the form of a disapproving face.

"I know it's not exactly our best move but we're out of options, Chief." John sighed as her words filtered through his head. Once again, she was right. John reluctantly gave a curt nod to Isaac, who readily picked up a spare weapon from one of the Elites' dead hands along with spare ammunition to boot.

"Let's move." John abbreviated. Together, the two soldiers and their companion AI left the scene as quick as they came as time ticked away, now in a race against the clock. There was no room for error. One way or another, they had to get there first.

Three hours later, the trio found themselves in the dense foliage mirroring that of the rainforests that at one point flourished upon the Earth's fertile soil. Now, it was little more than a fairy-tale, told by the previous generations in tall-tales that went into detail of the splendor it gave. For John, Earth was finally on the verge of restoring said fauna back into the natural ecosystem. The last time he had been there, scientists, aside from researching new creative ways in dealing with the Covenant threat had also been dedicating time to restoring the mythical trees and bushes back into existence. As his blue eyes scanned the environs around him through his helmet, it felt like home again to him. Green bushes dotted the landscape, alongside wild flowers of all shapes, sizes and colors. Gigantic trees loomed large from his position, forming an impromptu canopy from the artificial sun shining bright over their heads. Only shimmers and rays of sunlight pierced the leaves, bathing the fertile soil beneath their feet in its warm radiance, no doubt nourishing soon-to-be plants growing deep in the ground. It signified hope and invigorated his efforts in finding a way home in order to save Cortana from her 'degeneration'. '_Hope. This is what this place represents._' He found himself thinking.

Cortana too found their surroundings amazing and looked upon them with awe. Even after several sojourns into Forerunner installations and becoming intimate with its systems and workings, it still amazed her how the Forerunners were capable of supporting a living, breathing ecosystem on a mechanical structure. Granted, she had seen little besides the weeds growing across the ruins of buildings back home on Earth from videos the Chief's camera was fortunate or unfortunate to have recorded, but still… The beauty of nature and life itself was neatly summed up in this handy little view and it gave her a sense of hope she had never felt before in her eight years of service. Mostly, it was a case of survival and salvation, sprinkled with a dash of getting shot at or having stuck-up military generals disregarding her advice until the last moment. Here in this moment, she finally felt at peace as if nothing was wrong. '_Hope. This is what this place represents._' came her thoughts, unintentionally mirroring that of her protector. On that subject, she knew better than to dissuade John from his current course of action. '_I mean he literally travelled through time and space just to get me back from the Gravemind._' She pondered as she recollected her memories of his daring rescue attempt aboard the Covenant ship High Charity. So it was that she allowed herself a small glimmer of hope to pierce her heart of code and matrices…

Just behind them, Isaac sulked with a depressing mood right behind them, giving off an air of animosity and fear from his body. Luckily, both John and Cortana were too lost in their trains of thought to even notice this sudden change of behavior in him. Unlike them, Isaac was feeling utterly upset at the mere sight or even thought of a place such as this. Its splendor and beauty created not feelings of hope or awe but rather ones of regret and anger directed firmly at himself. '_They have a home to go back to. I don't._' He needlessly reminded to himself as he stepped on another dry twig. Where once Isaac could see such wonders on his own home planet, now it was nothing more than a pipe dream to even the most idealistic believers. '_Great, now I have a reminder of the mistakes I made all around me…_' came his grim ponderings gushing forth in his brain. Yet that wasn't the only thing to pop up in his damaged psyche…

"**My, my... We seem to have made new friends, Isaac.**" went the haughty voice in his head. Isaac groaned quietly at the thought of dealing with his brother's voice at such an inopportune time.

"What do you want, brother?" Isaac snarled, to his brother's muffled amusement.

"**Merely to see your progress… It seems to me that you have performed quite poorly.**" He droned on, accidentally pissing off Isaac even further. Still, Isaac composed himself to the point where his next words weren't stinging nor blistering.

"How do you figure?" He inevitably asked.

"**Well, you have yet to find any Kronostyl-2 crystals or the fragment that resides in this realm.**" The voice aimlessly spat forth, listing the failings of his younger brother.

"That's kinda hard to do when you're fighting for your life on a hostile alien planet." Isaac reminded his brother.

"**And you seemed to have forgotten the one rule you yourself agreed upon. No allies are to be brought into the fold.**" He raved, ignoring said reminder.

"They're none the wiser. As soon as I find the items, I'll make my exit." Isaac reassured.

"**If that is what you choose to believe…**"

"It's the truth, brother."

"**It's not me you have to convince…**" With that, the voice dimmed its influence upon his fractured state of mind and retreated into the recesses from whence it came. Isaac cursed as quietly as he possibly could, kicking a fallen tree in rage. This inevitably drew attention from John further up ahead, who spun around to investigate the source of the commotion.

"You okay back there, Private?" went John's voice in a manner of worried tension.

"Yeah, I'm… I'm alright. Just a little pissed at our situation, sir." Isaac answered quickly.

"Well, keep your head in the game. We're not out the woods yet." John reaffirmed their current situation, turning his head to scan the path in front of them.

"Understood, sir." Isaac muttered nonchalantly as his foot seethed in pain from his juvenile act of defiance. Isaac ambled on, ignoring the pain and following John and Cortana to the communication relay just past the dense forest that they currently found themselves in. As they passed another clump of lush trees, a bright orange creature peeked from out of a bushel of leaves high above them, its eerily blank yet shimmering eyes tracking their every movement. It remained intent on observation at the moment. Soon however, it would hunt. It would kill. Oh, how it would feast soon…

Night fell upon the trio nearly halfway through the forest, marked by several strange noises and sightings, a quick stop there and then to allow Isaac's injuries to heal and endless amounts of walking through samey treelines and grasslands. John insisted that they spend the night in a nearby clearing, wary and cautious of the dangers posed in traveling in the dark. Granted, he acknowledged the deadline they had but it would be of little use if no-one lived to pass on the message. Isaac stifled a chuckle as he took in the sight of the armored soldier arguing with a now-bluish-red Cortana, whose eyes flared up with every syllable uttered during her rant. If anything, Isaac thought them as a young married couple, prone to arguments but still madly in love. Isaac decided to spend his time collecting firewood for their makeshift campfire. Shambling out into the thick wilderness, Isaac set out to accomplish his task. Every dry twig he could get his grubby hands on, he nabbed and swiftly added it to the growing pile of lumber stacked into his arms. He struggled at first, carrying the immense load back towards the camp area. Beads of sweat flushed his exhausted face, barely cleansing the grime and dirt he had gotten from an ill-conceived plan to scout out their surroundings from the vantage point of a extremely tall tree from earlier in the day. He didn't hear the end of it, what with the chuckles of both John and Cortana trailing behind as he took point afterwards. Finally, he managed to drag the amassed bundle of fresh lumber to their campsite and keep their fire going for a good long while.

Over the fire, John and Isaac dined on some MREs that Isaac had scavenged earlier. While it was no five-star meal at a fancy restaurant, it did in a pinch. The sounds of both the crackling of the dying embers of their camp fire and the light tinkle of kitchenware filled the otherwise quiet atmosphere, lightening the uneasiness looming in the air. Pretty soon, both soldiers had adequately filled their hungry bellies. John took the first watch while Isaac, still somewhat awake remained to clean up the mess. John scanned the perimeter with his eagle eyes, dutifully aware of the consequences should he fail even slightly in his observations. Cortana, taking any chance to learn more decided then and there to have a little chat with Isaac before he went to sleep. '_I'd still like to know how he ended up on the Forward Unto Dawn._' Unlike John, she wasn't entirely sold on Isaac's story.

"Hey, Private." She began. Isaac's eyes looked up to peer at her hovering mere feet away from him. Averting his gaze from the substantial mess he still had to clean up, Isaac cleared his throat before answering.

"Hello, ma'am. Can I help you with anything?" he spoke with formal tone aplomb.

"You can drop the ranks out here, Private. I'm not too formal." She replied, trying to relax Isaac into a more amenable state.

"Sorry, ma'am. It just seems to me that you respond to that sorta thing." He replied nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders at his ineptitude to read her mind. '_Which is true… I can't exactly read minds. But something else's going on here._'

"I am formal because it's in my programming. You on the other hand are not." came her clinical response.

"Right. So what is it that you need …uh…Cortana…right?" Isaac corrected himself, intent on sussing out the true reason behind her line of questioning.

"Yes, that is correct." "I just wanted to know how you ended up on the Forward Unto Dawn. It seems odd that you showed up when you did." Cortana got down straight-to-the-point. '_This guy seems like the kinda person who doesn't like being led around by the nose. Maybe the direct approach would suffice._' went her reasoning moments ago.

"You're telling me. I had no idea that the ship was in use. All I know is that Lord Hood gave a direct order to me to prepare for a jump and to report to our stations. I just so happened to be the odd one out at that moment. So I had little choice but to use the emergency cryo tube. I'm assuming no-one came back to check on me or something happened back then. Either way, I have no idea which is true." He rattled off with a speed that would shame a sports car. All that without the slightest drop of tone or a hint of deception showing to the usually observant AI.

"That's your story?" Cortana raised a holographic eyebrow.

"It's the truth, Cortana." Isaac steadfastly answered, appearing confident in his answer while at the same time appearing confused with this line of questioning.

"Alright." Cortana replied with a hint of disbelief. Isaac's story felt like a punch card you use for work. Too many holes to be anywhere believable. For the moment however, she kept said suspicions to herself. "What about your armor? Haven't seen anything like it before…"

"Oh, this?" He said, pointing his finger at the armor enveloping his wounded body. "This is a standard marine outfit I modified to fit my ODST posting back then. See the titanium and ceramic plating that I added?" "I also removed the right pauldron to give me a better advantage should I need to use a sniper-rifle." He beamed proudly at Cortana.

"You're a sharpshooter." She summarized.

"Not exactly, ma'am. I didn't exactly get to start my ODST training proper before the call came forward. So I just modified it to fit my preferences." he explained.

"Where's your helmet?" Cortana pointed out.

"Don't know. Maybe it was lost during the warp jump." He shrugged his shoulders yet again.

"Maybe. Well, thanks Private. It's been an informative talk."

"Anytime, Cortana." She was just about to walk away when Isaac reeled her back in with a quick word.

"Ma'am?"

"Yes?" she coolly answered.

"It's Isaac." '_If I don't need to be informal, why should she? After all, knowing my luck with people, she'll want to know whose name to scream later on._' Went his pessimistic idealism.

"I'll be sure to write that down." She joked, stifling a chuckle at his weak attempt at humor.

"You do that, ma'am." And with that, the attractive hologram disappeared into her safe haven inside the Chief;s helmet who kept his attention solely focused on the landscape as well as his motion tracker. Isaac dutifully cleaned up the remaining mess in short time before turning in. '_Need some shut-eye if I want to do a good job of patrolling later._' Went his mind making a mental note of his duties later in the night.

FLASHBACK

"Dr. Eisenhower, come over here for a moment." went Catherine's somber tone throughout the research lab from the intercoms. Without wasting time, Isaac leapt from his seat and dashed to her office on the double, nearly colliding with a team of researchers carrying large stacks of lab notes back to their desks. Panting furiously, he finally came to a halt outside her office door. Giving one hard rap and a quick mention of 'Enter!' emanating from Halsey and he was inside in a flash. One glance around and Isaac was amazed if not slightly jealous at his superior.

The chief of the Special Projects Division at ONI seemed to be doing pretty well for herself. Her genius intellect had apparently earned her the right to furnish her office for luxury. A smooth Persian style rug enveloped the otherwise hard concrete surface. A shelf on the side was completely stocked with prestigious awards from the Academy for breakthroughs in the field of computing, genetic engineering and more. Her scientific trophies were displayed in the most awe-inspiring way possible, the gold and silver plaques and medals arranged neatly in a tidy position. Opposite that, Isaac saw a wide range of pictures framed in neat wooden frames and behind shiny glass to boot. One picture depicted a younger Halsey standing beside her parents and beaming at the camera, holding a science fair award in her tiny hands. '_No doubt her parents were far from impressed at that point. More like expectant if I think about it._' Another picture saw Halsey as she was today, dressed in her lab coat and posing alongside her research team. As Isaac looked for his own presence in the picture, his eyes just could not tear away from an obviously uncomfortable Halsey sitting in the front row. Unfortunately, Isaac could not tell if she was sulking or just plain bored with the whole scene. '_Maybe both, considering her posture._' went his subconscious as he finally tore away from said picture. The last picture to catch his attention looked like a more personal one. Catherine Halsey was wearing a simple yet elegant dress of pure black and standing alongside a handsome young man dressed in his usual military garbs. Both Catherine and the man seemed happy, with the good doctor even comfortable enough to throw her arm around him. '_So that's Jacob Keyes, huh. Looks like a nice guy._' Lieutenant Jacob Keyes was the subject of many a rumors that past few weeks. He and Halsey had been conspicuously absent the past few weeks, only returning barely two weeks ago. Already the office was abuzz with the supposed relationship; even going so far as to suggest the fun they mostly likely had in their luxury apartment. '_Well at least someone seemed to warm her heart._' A quick cough was enough to snap him back to reality and to be confronted with Catherine's dry wit.

"See something you like, Dr. Eisenhower?" came her voice, her eyes still not looking up from her notes.

"No, Dr. Halsey. It's just hard to get used to coming in here a lot." Isaac mused, drawing a bemused grin from the scientist.

"Oh, I assume you know what an office looks like." She grinned as she took in the look on Isaac's mortified face.

"Looks more like a suite at a fancy hotel to me." He mumbled loudly. Catherine could not help but burst out laughing at this, nearly doubling over in a rare fit of laughter.

"Shall we get down to business then?" Catherine finally answered, wiping stray tears from her eyes.

"Oh, yes… Sorry…" he fumbled with every word. As Isaac readied his project presentation, Catherine took stock of the last two years.

It had been a great two years. Luck had finally deigned to smile on her at last in the form of a groveling acceptance by the big-wigs higher up the food chain for her proposed Spartan-II project. Several key factors weighed heavily on their decision. Mainly, they wanted to have an elite fighting force in order to nip the insurrection in the bud without resorting to all-out warfare which would inevitably lead to a stinging number of casualties. Catherine was more than happy to oblige if only so she could push the boundaries of science even further. Just recently, she got the chance to finally begin recruiting said super-soldiers just two weeks ago alongside her lover, Junior Lieutenant Jacob Keyes. It was…uh… an interesting project that gave them more time to get to know one another more intimately. If she had to pin down one special kid, it would have to be the kid on the playground in Elysium City. He seemed steadfast and strong, possessing many of the qualities Halsey looked in potential candidates. However, the coin toss that went in his favor tipped the scales in his favor, unexpectedly earning a glowing recommendation from Halsey to the ONI big-heads.

The same two years was further compounded by the introduction of an even more brilliant mind into the fray. Dr. Ryan Eisenhower was by no means well-known but in the short amount of time he had been there, he has become one of the go-to guys for weapon engineering and advancements in AI. Sometimes Catherine would come into work and find her prized protégé surrounded by the stuffy guys from R&D crowded around him, eager to see him at work. To call him a savant with technology was an understatement. But Catherine was not impressed by that. No, it was his groundbreaking research into AI, more specifically its production that gave him the respect he deserved. Who would have thought a young-bright eyed recruit straight out of nowhere could have made his way to the top? So it was that Catherine eagerly anticipated the next breakthrough from him.

"Well get on with it then, Mr. Eisenhower. I haven't got all day." Halsey snapped, her authority clearly demonstrated in her booming voice, sending Isaac into a panic.

"Right, sorry ma'am." Isaac took a deep breath and calmed his frayed nerves before diving into his long-winded explanation.

"Well as you know, artificial intelligences at this stage have always been built using Cognitive Impression Modeling. However this process always inevitably destroys the original brain tissue as a result. Therefore, it has been incredibly impossible to create AI beyond the capabilities of said process. While flash-cloning is an option, it has also been known to be very ineffective due to the fact that most flash-clones do not survive the process or even take to the CIM method." Isaac explained, drawing a prolonged yawn from Catherine.

"All things even an intern could tell me." Halsey practically waved her hand in dismissal, only to receive a reassurance by Isaac.

"Let me get to that, ma'am. Now what I propose is something quite radical that at the moment is an experimental procedure. What I hope to do is to perfect the solution to a mirror-shine."

"Out with it, Dr. Eisenhower… Don't keep me in suspense." Halsey jested.

"What if we applied human biology to the formula?" Isaac surmised.

"Explain."

"Well, one brain could potentially fail due to the lack of chromosomes to bond with. Think of it along the lines of an asexual creature. You do not force it to begin procreating sexually and vice-versa."

"So you theorize that our brain, much like our human body reproduces sexually? How is that relevant?" Halsey remarked incredulously, still dumbfounded by Isaac's far-fetched idea. '_Is he actually serious or is he just acting out due to some sort of sexual frustration?_' went her subconscious.

"Yes. Keep in mind that cloning in itself is an asexual process. So it stands to reason that the brain would not last long, if at all."

"And this helps us how?" Halsey asked, raising an eyebrow in response.

"We use the same flash-cloning only instead of using one brain as a template, we use two separate brains in order to coalesce the brain tissue into an unique brain that is both reliable and allows us to subsist solely on the flash-cloning method alone." Isaac spat out off the top of his head.

"Sounds utterly ridiculous when you think about it. How many experiments do you hope to take to accomplish such a task?" she questioned.

"I have no estimate on that, ma'am. Rest assured that I will do my best on this." Isaac shrugged his shoulders. How long would it take? A week? A month? A year? More than that?

"Very well… The department's resources are at your disposal. But I want a regular update on the project every week or so." Halsey relented, eager to see where this course of action takes him.

"As you wish, Dr. Halsey." He sighed with relief. "Keep in mind, ma'am that it is just a theory. I have yet to work out the kinks." He warned.

"You have not failed me thus far. Don't start now. You may go." She explicitly reminded Isaac of his perfect track record. And with that, Isaac brushed past and figuratively flew out the door, leaving Halsey to ponder about her candidates for the Spartan-II program. One thing never fluttered into their thick skulls as they went about their work.

What the consequences of said actions would be. One soul more than any…

END FLASHBACK

As Isaac slumbered soundly in his patchy bunk as the memory of his previous excursion here filtered in his mind, a wild, strangled noise emerged from outside his tent. This caused the disgruntled soldier to stir awake with a foul mood and an equally bad temper. Yet it was what occurred next or rather what he heard next that grounded his decision to stay put, to remain in the safety of his tent.

"I am your sword! I am your shield!" went the distorted voice of Cortana, cycling through multiple tones simultaneously. Isaac stood upright against the slit of his tent, listening in on the heated argument outside.

"Cortana, it's me." John cried out exasperatedly as he tried in vain to control her outburst. Isaac peeked out and saw to his astonishment a bluish-red Cortana hovering just in front of him, throwing her arms in every which way. From the looks of it, Isaac had to surmise that her rampancy was steadily progressing. '_Poor bastard… He's bearing the brunt of it all._' He pondered as he watched the scene unfold.

"I'm going to die!" she cried out with a shriek.

"You will join me!" went another tone, this one determined and harsh.

"Stop thinking, Cortana…" she mumbled next.

"I have to… I have to…." Now her lines were repeating themselves again and again, as if she wants to remember something.

"Thinking is what I do." Went a garbled, distorted line.

"THINKING IS WHAT KILLS YOU!" She bellowed at the peak of her vocal systems, temporarily making the Chief deaf. Unfortunately, it did not last long before he was subjected to another round of voices.

"If we have to suffer, then Chief must suffer with us too!" Cortana cackled maniacally like a Saturday morning cartoon villain.

"No, I won't…. I won't hu…rt…" went again her distorted tone, now mixing with the voice of a man.

"FOUR YEARS! FOUR YEARS WASTED!" She echoed in her screams, her data cycling back to her time on the wrecked Forward Unto Dawn.

"All I've done is think, think, think…." She endlessly repeated for several seconds.

"Why didn't I foresee this? I should have thought about it…."

"I hate him…." She mumbled under her breath.

"That's not true!" went her defiant voice at the notion. By then, John had had enough of sitting idly by and waiting for her to run her course. '_I can't watch her suffer any longer._' he determined to himself.

"Cortana!" Chief finally yelled, breaking his normally straight façade. Her eyes snapped back into her usual blue hue along with the rest of her body. Shaking her head, she looked up at John with a scared look in her face, her code swirling in every one of her extremities. At one point, her code somehow simulated blushing in her holographic cheek.

"I'm sorry, Chief." She sincerely apologized, rubbing her eyes to remove tears that were not there.

"You don't have to apologize." John reassured in a calm tone.

"I didn't mean…." Cortana desperately sobbed. '_Great, no doubt he hates me now…_' went her constantly thinking software that acted as her figurative brain.

"I know you didn't. It's alright. I'm here." John again tried to soothe her sobs.

"I was so scared those four years." She rolled from her full lips amidst strained periods of sobbing.

"I didn't know." He sympathized.

"I wanted to wake you… to talk to you. I wanted not to feel alone."

"It's okay… It's okay. You're not alone now."

"I'm getting worse."

"You'll get better, I promise." John gave his most heartfelt response. Meeting each other eyes, Cortana repeated her famous words to her protector, her carrier.

"Don't make a girl a promise you can't keep." Cortana mused sadly as she slumped and curled up into the fetal position.

"We'll get you to Halsey. She'll fix you." John replied, trying so hard to ignore her acceptance to let go.

"Maybe… Maybe…."

Little did they know of their audience. Little did they realize that Isaac's mouth was wide open, staring blankly at the two of them and completely lost for words, both in the physical and mental sense. So lost in fact that he did not hear a low growl emerge from behind his tent….

**Sorry about the long wait. I just watched the web-series in its entirety and decided to put this vignette in as part of a way to incorporate the insanity on display in those videos. I hope this one's good. I have no idea how this one will do. Honestly, I hope I haven't sacrificed the quality. Anyway, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year….**


	5. Infinity's Fall

**Chapter 5 : Infinity's Fall**

**I will be writing a lot on this one, mainly because I want to bring in the Infinity as soon as possible. Consider the first four chapters as the set-up and the remaining ones as the main bone of the ribcage. Now with that poorly worded metaphor out of the way, I would like to ask readers of my fanfics to please show your love by liking, reviewing or putting this in your favs list. It helps give some motivation to keep on writing. Also, I will note that I have not yet played Halo 4 myself and I only know the general storyline from Wikipedia. With that said, let us continue… Also yay! Double quotes!**

"_How far will we go? How much of our humanity will we sacrifice in the name of human evolution? How long before we can no longer call ourselves human?_" – Isaac Eisenhower.

"_Your gifts are wasted on you. How such a pathetic creature such as you was bestowed their highest honor is beyond my understanding. No matter… Now, you shall face the wrath of the true God!_" – Archer Holden.

FLASHBACK

"Damn it. That doesn't work." exclaimed a frustrated Isaac as his experiment results came back negative. It was late into the night that day in September 2517. It had been barely a month since his first efforts into his latest project, the theory behind the perfect method to mass producing AIs without significant cost. Most of his co-workers had left for the night, leaving him to burn the midnight oil in a vain attempt to tackle the problem posed by his project. So far, it had gone as expected. A whole lot of failures and no clear headway into the project. Fuming with anger, he strained to keep his emotions in check as he crumpled up another piece of paper and chucked it in the direction of the nearest trash receptacle. Yet, the impromptu projectile was halted in its trajectory by a familiar female hand placed in the path of its flight.

"Oh, Dr. Halsey. I didn't see you come in." Isaac stuttered out in response, clearly shocked by her sudden appearance. Halsey looked properly dressed for a night on the town. Her body was draped in a sparkling white dress that accentuated her features with great prominence. Makeup dotted her face and she wore matching high-heels to boot. '_Keyes must be one lucky bastard to be hitting that._' Isaac thought to himself.

"With your nose buried in your work, it's no surprise why." Catherine joked, eliciting a similar response from the hardworking scientist/soldier. Not that she knew that particular detail.

"I guess that is true, ma'am."

"What are you doing now?" Catherine motioned her head at Isaac's cluttered desk. Rows upon rows of paper with indecipherable scribbles were stacked on one side of the desk. The other was completely occupied by various apparatus, chief among this a pair of Petri dishes slathered with nutrient-rich gel and brain tissue samples.

"I'm trying to overcome the issue of the brain cells not fully merging with one another after the flash-cloning. For some reason it seems to fizzle out as soon as they come into contact with one another."

"That does seem to be a problem."

"Eh, I'll figure it out eventually. So what brings you out here? Don't you have a date waiting for you?" he shrugged his shoulders as the words left his lips.

"Lieutenant Keyes is a patient man. He can wait." Halsey stated matter-of-factly. Isaac seemed more interested in the promotion bit rather than her actual answer.

"Lieutenant, eh? Congrats to him. Guess that means you guys can get some better digs." Isaac jeered, poking fun just for the heck of it.

"Oh, I don't know about that. Our quarters are quite… spacious for our needs right now." Halsey smacked her lips, frightening the bedraggled man slightly. The way she punctuated every word was just creepy. '_Okay, note to self. Never joke about her personal life at all._'

"I'm sure." Isaac meekly jested.

"Actually, there have been some changes." Her tone did a quick 180, turning into an authoritative tone almost immediately.

"Okay…" Isaac trailed off.

"I'm being reassigned to the UNSC Magellan for the time being. You on the other hand have been relegated to Reach." She quickly spun out straight-to-the-point.

"That's a bit sudden. When do I leave?" Isaac answered with a startled tone.

"In two days. Make sure you take all your notes, files and samples with you. Any leftovers could result in a major breach in security if left unsecured."

"Standard protocol, got it. I do have one question though. Why are you being reassigned to the Magellan? I thought the big wigs would want to keep you close, seeing as you're the genius scientist and all." Isaac questioned. Halsey frittered a little at that point, deciding whether or not to inform Isaac of her program. Eventually she settled on following the procedure the ONI staff had set for said program.

"Beats me, Eisenhower. I just follow orders. As long as they don't interfere with my research, I'm fine with it." She shrugged her shoulders. Isaac was slightly confused but eventually accepted her response, deciding not to push the issue further.

"If you say so."

"I still expect an update every week or so. The top brass are eager to see where you intend to take this project." Halsey reminded Isaac.

"As you wish, ma'am." Isaac nodded in acceptance of his orders.

"Alright, guess I better not keep him waiting. Good night, Eisenhower." Catherine waved as she shambled out of the room, not willing to make her date wait any longer to bask in her beauty.

"Good night, Dr. Halsey." Isaac waved back as her lithe figure disappeared into the darkness, leaving him at his desk under a moody office light. Sighing to himself and resolving to get his own girl, he quickly turned his attention back to his work.

"Now, maybe some sort of cell regeneration factor might solve the issue?" he mumbled to himself as he shuffled each and every sample a second time that hour.

END FLASHBACK

The orange glowing metallic version of a human dog leaped in the air and tore through the thin wrapping encasing the stunned soldier in its warm embrace, ready to pounce on its newfound prey. Isaac had little chance to avert its attack and he soon found himself pinned on the hard ground, wrestling with an unknown robotic construct. As his hands flayed about trying to pull it off, the creature snarled, baring its teeth for Isaac to see with his bloodshot red eyes.

"Get the f*^# off me, you rabid beast!" he cursed as the creature became more aggressive with every missed opportunity to dig its metallic razor sharp teeth in his juicy flesh. The stalemate finally concluded after Isaac finally gained enough ground to shove the thing off of him. Before it could react any further, Isaac yanked his serrated blade from his belt and brought it down on the creature's head. The results were far from predictable. Instead of oozing blood like normal aliens, this one in Isaac's eyes dismantled itself upon destruction. Unfortunately for him, it also involved a minor explosion. Isaac leapt to his feet and began dragging himself out of the tent as the creature's body began to glow and vibrate with a large orange pulse.

Meanwhile just outside, John and Cortana remained ever vigilant for threats on the horizon with Cortana double checking her motion sensor every few minutes or so. With their eyes so focused on the outside, it took them several moments to let the sound of the explosion rock through their ears. John immediately spun his head around and saw to his horror a burning, ragged scrap heap where Isaac's tent used to be. What was even worse was the sight of Isaac sprawled across the ground, groaning in pain. His armor was scratched and tattered and several skin-deep scars presented themselves to the veteran super-soldier. Without hesitation, John made his way to Isaac's side.

"You alright there?" John asked with concern as he examined Isaac from head to toe. Isaac coughed loudly several times before giving a stout reply.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a few scratches." Isaac reassured with a smirk, bringing a warm smile upon John's face.

"What happened?" He queried.

"Some robotic… thing jumped while I was sleeping. Blew up when I took it out." Isaac explained, pointing at the burning mess right behind them. John grimly nodded and bade to pull Isaac back up on his feet when all of a sudden, a chorus of howling voices filled the erstwhile silent atmosphere, triggering his instincts almost instantaneously.

"Shhh… Shhh…" "Do you hear that?" He whispered silently, confusing Isaac.

"I don't…" he began before an armored finger placed itself upon his bruised lips, silencing his thoughts temporarily. Cortana's speakers also sparked with flares of static, eventually coalescing into the same sounds that emanated within John's eardrums.

"I hear it too, Chief. Motion sensors are picking up multiple contacts." Cortana urgently reported. John reached for his rifle on his back and double-checked his ammunition count, pulling back on the hammer with a loud thwack. '_Great, this shit's just hit the fan…_' went Isaac's subconscious.

"They're circling our position. They'll have us surrounded within seconds." She basically screamed, her tone implying the messed up situation the trio found themselves in at the moment. From the shadows of the trees all around them, a horde of eerily peculiar orange eyes glared back at them, circling their prey like ravenous wolves in their own home turf.

"More of those things?" Isaac found his voice at last.

"Seems likely… Can you fight?" John got straight to the point. Isaac gave a physical response, dragging his feet up and propping himself upright before nabbing his dented rifle from the wreckage of his own pristine tent.

"Good to go, sir. Ready when you are." Isaac emphasized, pulling back on the hammer to a sound John found comforting in the wake of their plight.

"Good…" "Get ready. We have a fight on our hands soon." John motioned for Isaac to stick close. Both men raised their rifles and trained it at the massing horde surrounding them, their barrels cycling each and every target they could train their eyes on. Cortana reappeared before them and took in the sight herself.

"Boys, I hope you're ready for this." Cortana voiced her opinion with a wracked tone, made even more disconcerting by a bout of garbled speech patterns that caused both soldiers to cringe at the high-pitch sound like a day at the opera house.

"Come on, what could possibly go wrong, ma'am?" Isaac quipped.

The peace and tranquility of the artificial forest blossomed over the years, fertilizing the rich soil with numerous species of flora and creating an environment that practically begged to be used for meditation. All that was lost when one battered man and an armored bastard dashed across the undergrowth, firing their weapons into the horde of robot dogs on their heels.

"Keep moving!" John screamed, scaring relaxed birds off their perch. His gun remained steadily focused on pumping hot lead into the jaws of the encroaching rabble, several of which visibly popped before his eyes like a champagne cork. At his side, Isaac was also defiantly trained on the lingering danger and did his best to score hits even while his feet were carrying his body at breakneck paces. The lush, green trees swooshed past them in a matter of seconds as they raced across the length of the rainforest.

"There's no end to them, sir!" Isaac bellowed over the volley of sounds assaulting their eardrums.

"Just keep firing!" He promptly replied, another of his burst fires catching one of the robotic dogs in the midsection and treating the both of them to a spectacle of a chain reaction. Even after that, the horde reassembled and got back to chasing them down.

"What did you say earlier, Private?" came Cortana's exasperated yet sardonic quip.

"Is this the right time, ma'am?!" He snarled dishearteningly as he released his hold on the trigger just so he could pop in a fresh magazine.

"Just shut up you two and keep on your feet!" John cried out over the comms, bringing an end to the chatter well before it truly begun. This process repeated itself for the next few minutes with John and Isaac having to vault over or crawl underneath fallen tree logs and engorged roots from time to time. By then, the exhaustion was slowly getting to Isaac. He was by no means an unfit man but running pell-mell without any breaks whatsoever takes its toll on any normal human being. John on the other hand was not and was able to keep moving. At last, the undergrowth paved away to the relieving sight of a ray of sunlight shining in their faces. John and Isaac eagerly dashed forward with the last of their stamina. It was to their dismay that their safe haven was in fact a dead end. A long, long, looong way down kinda dead-end.

"F (%!" swore the tired, battered man. John grimly took stock of their situation before he grimly turned to Isaac.

"We have to jump." He stated plainly. John was far from surprised when Isaac started to object.

"What! Are you crazy, sir!?" Isaac mimicked insanity, spinning his little finger around his ear with a swirling motion.

"I don't see any way out of here. Do you?" John pointed out. Isaac still had his reservations.

"That…." "That's just insane!" He mumbled loudly.

"We have no choice. Unless you want to take your chances with those things…" John gingerly waved his hand at the forest behind them. The snarling and howling sounds drew nearer and there was already a sliver of orange peeking out from the verdant bushes, watching them with a ravenous hunger.

"Go, go!" Isaac yelped in a panic. The fearless super soldier took it to heart, leaping gracefully off the cliff side and vanishing into the abyss below. Isaac remained seated on the edge of his worst fear. Even back home, he was scared of heights, it being his one mortal enemy.

"Oh, god… This is not good." Isaac muttered under his breath. The horde descended upon his prone form, eager to dig in. At the last moment, Isaac took a running leap and felt the air rush past him like a vacuum as his body was pulled further down into the unforeseen cavern below.

"Hoooollllyyy shiiittt!" He screamed on the way down. From up above, the mass of robotic beast howled and moaned as their prey disappeared from their sight, forever lost in the abyss. With dejection fresh in their computing processes, they ambled away from the scene on their tiny metal legs. The peace and silence returned as the calming wind breezed in the air. You would think that everything that had occurred was nothing more than a mirage…

Isaac's eyes surged open as he found his form floating in his empty subsconscious. Struggling to break free of his gravity-free environs, he was startled to find his brother floating right in front of him and giving him an amicable smile.

"**Welcome back, brother.**" He gave a winning smile, eliciting a low groan from Isaac, still trapped in vertigo.

"Great… you again…" he moaned complacently.

"**Are you not glad to see me?" **Ryan frowned, his brows creasing his forehead.

"If I'm seeing you then that means I'm unconscious. Again…" Isaac explained to the disembodied persona.

"**It's not my fault you seem to faint like a school-girl around boys all the time." **He shrugged his shoulders, preferring to get straight to the point.

"You're not helping matters." Isaac snorted, incensed by his brother's cavalier attitude.

"**Neither are you. Remember… My existence here is at stake as well." **Ryan reminded, poking Isaac in his temple as he said this.

"Gee, who could forget the creepy voice in my head? Sounds like something you write in red all over your calendar." He sarcastically quipped. Ryan just looked even more disappointed, peering into his brother's blood red eyes and giving a deep sigh before turning his back to him.

"**Enough chatter. Let us discuss a more pressing issue.**" Ryan halted their argument, hoping to focus on a much bigger issue at hand. Nonetheless, Isaac still wanted to give his two cents on the matter.

"Really? What could be more pressing than the whole f ^$ing planet out for me like I signed my death warrant?! Cause that shit's pretty high on the list, Ryan!" Isaac bellowed at the still calm facsimile of his deceased sibling.

"**And yet you place your comrades at risk by being too close to them.**" He reminded him, causing Isaac to back off on his raging persona and adopt a more defensive stance.

"We've been over this. I'm just going to find the crystal and the shard and then I bugger out. Simple as that." Isaac gave a half-hearted explanation, the likes of which did not convince Ryan at all.

"**I do not find that explanation encouraging nor convincing.**" He mused, placing a finger to his lips in careful thought.

"Well, it's the best I've got. Deal with it!" Isaac spat out. Having had enough of his cryptic warnings, he was just about to leave when Ryan broke his cone of silence and spoke in a troubled tone.

"**Isaac, we have a problem.**" He stated matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean?" Isaac questioned.

"**Your dementia. It's resurfacing.**" Ryan sighed as he spelled out the words as so not to confuse him. It seemed to work since Isaac's face did a quick 180 and dissolved into a face of pure disbelief.

"What? Are you serious?" Isaac yelled incredulously, thinking that it was another one of his brother's sick jokes.

"**You'll find that I do not joke about such heavy matters.**" He surmised, taking note of Isaac's reactions to gauge his answer.

"Goddamn it, Ryan! You should… you should… have told me." Isaac walked back and forth, pulling at his hair with both hands. Strands of dry, scaly hair presented itself on his outstretched palms. Still, the stress was not relieved.

"**I did not know until now. Listen to me!" "I can keep it at bay for so long, Isaac. Sooner or later, they will overwhelm me. When that happens….**" Ryan trailed off for both entities knew what the consequences were should Isaac's dementia be left to roam free and wild.

"I know what f*& ing happens! I wasn't born yesterday." Isaac snarled at him.

"**You must go. They appear to be waking you.**" He interrupted Isaac's rant when he felt the room visibly shake like an off-the-scale earthquake. Ryan left the confines of the room and disappeared back into his own corner of Isaac's subconscious.

"Thanks for nothing, Sherlock." Isaac spat out as he watched the shadow of his brother melt away into the ensuing darkness. Isaac remained seated in the middle of the room, all the while the room itself crumbled into pieces around him. His ears rang with the voice of John, bellowing into his eardrums and shaking his prone body.

"Isaac, wake up!" John practically demanded. Isaac's eyes flung wide open and he fell into a bout of coughing, followed by a draining of his lungs of all the water that had found its way into his system without permission.

"You alright, kid?" he asked.

"Yeah… That was a nasty fall." "I assume I hit something on the way down?" Isaac pondered aloud as his eyes looked up. The cliff was a gargantuan one and the height made Isaac's skin crawl in fear. That and the blood streaming steadily down his cheek like a river was enough to make an educated guess.

"You did, Private. Several times in fact. My initial scans show nothing abnormal about your injuries. For the moment, you seem to be okay." Cortana appeared and floated in thin air, her arm outstretched and passing a scanning laser over every facet of Isaac's body.

"Thanks for the update, Cortana. I reaaallly appreciate it." Isaac moaned with a dry wit.

"Are we out of the woods yet?" he asked John. He was surprised to see him look slightly amused with his query and if he wasn't reading him wrong, happy?

"Even better…" John paused for dramatic effect.

"We're near our target." John stepped aside from Isaac's field of vision to give him a better glimpse. Staring back into his ruby-red eyes was lush grasslands, dotted with the occasional rock formation of large boulder. Centering said grasslands was a massive construct similar in design to the Cartographer. '_Holy shit, that thing has to be at least three times the size of the last place._' His mind went with awe.

"Well, that's convenient." Isaac stated. John and Cortana could only nod their heads in agreement.

"So what happens now?" he asked, already aware of the answer long before their lips parted to allow words to spill from their mouths.

"Now, we hitch a ride home, Private." Cortana spoke in her clinical tone. It was a common occurrence with Isaac that by now he had grown used to this callous disregard. Still, he wished that the AI viewed him as equal to John since she only ever speaks to him in such a normal, human tone.

"Ready when you are, ma'am." Isaac grinned, hoisting himself from the ground again and readying his battered rifle, which by now had enough scratch marks to warrant it being called a second-rate weapon.

"That's what I like to hear…" Cortana replied.

"Come on, let's move." John gave a quick signal with his hand. Isaac needed no further encouragement and both soldiers set off for what appeared to be their final destination to their ticket home.

"Ha! Got one of you, alien freakbags!" Isaac screamed with delirious thrill as another Jackal fell to the drum of his weapon's lethal fire. It had only been five minutes into their impromptu assault and the heat was already quite heavy. Waves upon waves of Covenant forces flooded the entryway to the building, intent on halting their progress and claiming the Forerunners' secrets to themselves. As Isaac loaded a fresh clip into his well-worn DMR, John on the other hand spewed a deluge of Carbine rounds from a pilfered Covenant Carbine Rifle he had plucked from the cold, dead hands of a Jackal sharpshooter. His old standby remained on his back however, his hopes that ammo for his trusty war horse would present itself in the near future. Blasts of plasma, needles and laser beams pinged off their cover hotspots, charring the once pristine mega structure and making singe marks all across the ramp. An Elite commander bellowed out orders in his own native tongue, his mandibles braying back and forth with clear disapproval of his troops' ability to kill even just two soldiers. Not even the weak human fell to his army's onslaught. He could make allowances for the 'Demon' but not the other human. Isaac felt the brunt of his rage, his forces channeled into a frenzy aimed squarely at his supposed weak rear.

His gun clicked empty yet again and the only few weapons he could scavenge were far too near to enemy lines. Tossing his gun aside in anger, he fell into an uncontrollable rage, whipping out his dual-edged blade and taking a suicidal charge right into the body of the enemy. Time began to slow down as dust particles froze in mid-air. Each and every individual save Isaac moved at a snail's pace. Projectiles of all shapes and sizes hung in mid-air, their trajectory parting the air and making a visible outline from shooter to target. Isaac simply pressed onward, his knife at the ready. His first target fell easily, his knife plunged deep into the Grunt's eye socket, causing a fountain of blue blood to squelch horribly from its mangled compartment. The second target fell just as quick as Isaac opted to sever the Grunt's grubby small legs. The Grunt hovered in mid-air, a look of shock slowly being etched across his hideous face as his legs literally fell apart in what he interpreted as a gust of air. The third was a Jackal and Isaac was just as brutal. Grabbing the shield generator off its arm, Isaac pulled open the Jackal's mouth and shoved it in deep down its throat, its fangs snapping at the sheer force of Isaac's cutthroat move.

Time slowly sped up as Isaac continued to go to town on the comparatively smaller army. By now, the battle was in its penultimate stages. Bullets ricocheted off every surface it could get its metal jackets on. Needles of pure lethality shattered harmlessly into tiny fragments, each still possessing a fraction of its original payload. Finally, Isaac found his main target, an Elite clad in scraps of golden armor, a symbol of his leadership and his prowess in battle. As his feet found firm ground on the same platform, time resumed its normal course. John, Cortana and even the Elite Commander were completely taken aback at the carnage laid out before. Within split moments, both hardened commanders bore witness to the carnage Isaac wrought. Grunts across the board were either choking on their own blood or watching with ever growing fear their friends and their leaders dropping dead like flies. Even the Elites looked grasped in the arms of terror, their eyes glancing back and forth, looking for an explanation to go along with their view of the battlefield. The Elite Commander could only gasp as he watched Isaac saddle up to him, a big wide smile of barely contained psychopathic glee plastered on him.

"Hello there…" Isaac grimaced. His blade was as quick as lightning and the Commander had little chance to react before Isaac made a gaping chest cavity with one quick slash. To compound the pain even further, Isaac sheathed his blade and cracked his knuckles in anticipation. One swift move and John and Cortana watched in astonishment as he tore open the already deep wound into a massive hole, blood spurting weakly from all the severed arteries and showering the beleaguered veteran in purple goo.

"Cortana, mind explaining to me what just happened?" John asked incredulously, his mind dreading every possibility he came up. As Cortana popped up on his outstretched hand, he could see that the mere act of watching him in action was shaking her down to the very core.

"Chief, you may need to sit down for this." Cortana answered, visibly shaken.

"Cortana…." John grimaced.

"Sigh… His bio-signatures went off the charts when he started fighting. Unnatural human speeds, combat training beyond even the most advanced training available to any normal soldier…" Cortana listed off one by one. Recognition dawned on John as soon as the words unnatural floated through his ear canals.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" John spoke with slight trepidation.

"I am. Isaac Eisenhower may not be a rookie ODST." Cortana said, trailing off as she watched a messy Isaac make his way back to their position.

"He may just be a Spartan…."

"Clear!" John shouted as he burst into the main control center. It had been a long day, filled with endless hordes of marauding Covenant forces. Even the robotic dogs decided to join the party, turning one particular battle into a three-way slug fest. Regardless, John and Isaac managed to come out on top. It could have not been timed better either. Cortana was degrading by the minute and her distorted voice started resurfacing more frequently. She didn't have much time left and both AI and super-soldier knew that. At least, one super-soldier…

"All clear here, sir." Isaac retorted back, his gun swiveling to check the crevices of the room. Ever since that display on the ramp, Isaac has so far kept his inhuman feats in check. '_God knows what that kid is capable of._' Went his troubled brain. In truth, John should be grateful that he may not be the last Spartan left standing. On the other hand, Isaac's lies made both of them equally suspicious, which did little for Cortana's lifespan.

"Scan the room, Cortana. We don't want any surprises." John put his finger to his comm-link.

"On it, Chief." Cortana muttered in a low pitch tone, mainly to avoid hearing her disjointed speech patterns screech into her ears. As the trio secured the room, Cortana's eyes finally found their prize.

"There it is…" John spoke authoratively. He was staring at a massive communication tower, equipped with a probing ray of light shooting up out of the structure itself and into the vastness of the sky above. Terminals crowded the tower and in the centre, a huge switch. '_Forerunners don't think small when it comes to architecture._' He pondered.

"That's a huge jammer." Isaac spoke with his wide gaping mouth.

"I'm going for it." John determined. Before he could step up to touch the button, Isaac blocked his way with a well-placed arm.

"Wait, sir! Shouldn't we be a little careful? Who knows if that thing is booby-trapped?" Isaac asked with a degree of concern.

"We are out of options as it is. I'm going for it. Cover me, kid." John surmised to Isaac, who reluctantly followed orders as he should.

"If you say so, boss." He grunted, turning his back to face the main entrance. John tentatively reached out for the device, pulling back on its handle until it was all the way out. All of a sudden, every orange light dimmed in brightness, coating the room in pitch-black darkness.

"I think we did it, Chief." Cortana praised, giving a fist-pump into the air with celebration.

"Hail the Infinity. We need to…" John began but a blast of orange energy cut his words short. John's body flew across the length of the room. Cortana meanwhile felt her circuits shut off one by one till she reverted to a sleep mode. Only Isaac remained unharmed, rooted to the ground.

"What's happening? Guys?" Isaac bellowed, racing towards the prone body of John. Checking his pulse, he breathed a sigh of relief when his fingers felt the throb of John's heartbeat against his calloused fingers. A screeching sound emanated from the communication tower and he could see an alien figure burst forth from underneath, bathed in the glow of orange.

"Oh, crap…." He mumbled.

"So you have come here to free me." The alien spoke in a condescending manner.

"I did not come here to free you. I came here to get off this planet!" Isaac retorted, not budging an inch from his position. '_Come on, wake up already…_' went his mind as his eyes altered between examining his new foe and keeping an eye on his companion, his friend.

"Oh, but I insist. Do stay… and die." It cooed menacingly. Isaac did not betray his emotions, resolving to keep a steely nerve.

"Thanks but no thanks. I prefer to stay alive." Isaac shot back.

"The Holy Creators had decreed that the Instigator is not to leave here alive. I'm obliged to answer their call." The alien proclaimed, eliciting a response of pure rage from the disheveled soldier.

"F#* you! I'm going to kill every last one of you!" He swore.

"Perhaps. But at what cost, prophet?" the alien mused, no doubt realizing that Isaac would be a worthy foe and a possible wrench in the grand scheme of things.

"For the last f*%#ing time, I'm not your prophet!" Isaac screamed, his veins popping left and right and his heart beating with a pace that would put a race car to shame. The alien merely put out a maniacal life and vanished into the abyss below, leaving Isaac in total darkness. If that wasn't enough, the next few words from John's intercom proved otherwise…

"This is UNSC Infinity. We're going down. I repeat, we're going down…" came the crackle of a senior officer through the intercoms. Isaac's face paled at the worsening events all around him.

Everything that could have gone wrong had gone wrong…

**Finally I finished this chapter. Sorry about the quality. I kinda ran out of steam for any interesting developments prior to the Infinity portion. Don't worry, the Infinity sections will be much better. That much I hope to achieve. Until then, see ya next time… Oh, yes. I forgot… Go check out my new fanfic, Be Careful What You Wish For on the Mass Effect page. It seems to get more reviews and likes than this one. That makes me sad…. Anyway, have a good new year…**


	6. Down To Requiem

**Chapter 6 : Down to Requiem**

**Finally, I have moved on to the Infinity portion of this story and hopefully get some traction going before this act is over. On that note, I have decided at the moment to list down several possible candidates for ACT 3, including Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Resident Evil. Though from the basic overlining theme, Mass Effect fits the sci-fi profile. Anyway, let me know of any feedback through your messages and reviews. Right, with that out of the way…**

"_I have defied Gods and demons. I am your shield; I am your sword. I know you; your past, your future… This is the way the world ends._" – Cortana.

"_There is no amount of redemption that can rid the stains on my heart nor was there any hope of removing its curse upon humanity." _– Isaac Eisenhower.

FLASHBACK

"Alright, that's the last one. Just set her down over there." Isaac waved his hand boringly at an uninhabited corner in his office. It had been barely two weeks since his sudden upheaval to Reach and most of his equipment were just now only getting past the mountains of red tape back home. If Isaac hadn't been so engrossed with his AI project, he would have blown his brain out of sheer boredom waiting for his gear to show up.

"Yes, sir." The mover nodded as his arms were wrapped around a giant box labeled FRAGILE.

"And hey, be careful with that. That thing's worth more than you make in a year!" Isaac forewarned. It felt strange, having resources at his disposal and at his command. It wasn't that long ago that he had to make do with sticks and stones. Now he was basically being handed technology by the bucket-loads.

"Duly noted, sir." The mover grimaced, his palms starting to perspire from the added pressure. As the mover organized his lab equipment meticulously, Isaac's focus was mainly on his expanded project line-up.

Ever since his failures on Earth, Isaac had been hard at work, delving into his research even further than he imagined. It allowed him to solve two problems. One, the flash-cloning was greatly improved when he discovered that the flash-cloned brains had a better percentile of survival outside of the test chamber when coded with a unique genome he pinched from a rare species of moa found on the planet. While supplies of said genome were startlingly rare since it could not be reproduced outside conventional means, he was relegated to enough samples to produce one AI. Secondly, he had also managed to develop a machine that could perform the procedure necessary for the AI but also cherry-pick various aspects from the brains itself to be incorporated into the AI. Once again, it had its hiccups which in this case was its experimental phase. Nevertheless, Isaac had enough confidence in his work that he scheduled a series of flash-cloning tests using his own brain within the year.

ONI was quite impressed with his advancements, hailing him as the next Halsey, something which he took in stride. It was relieving to finally earn some form of redemption for his crimes, even if the stain was too great to wash off in his lifetime. Still, the effort was valiant enough and he was determined to press onwards. As Isaac's lab came together at last, he took a few moments to take in the splendor of his environs. The laboratory allocated in his name was not too shabby, its four white concrete-alloy enforced walls forming a sizeable room. Not big enough to make walking a chore but also not small enough to contemplate whether or not he had any air left in his sardine can of a room. The pristine look and feel was further compounded by the neat overlay of his lab. Several glass apparatus laid across one of the tables, their gloss and shine creating a glare in the arid conditions and the baking sun. A full suite of electronic configuration materials and research equipment came along for the ride. Yet even more still remained wrapped in plastic, safely tucked away in their boxes for another day. Even better, his little corner of paradise came with a stunning view, overlooking one of the most gorgeous vistas present on the planet. Isaac made doubly sure his eyes weren't hallucinating this particular wonderland. For once, he felt at peace. At rest. Like a corpse, he finally got the burial he deserved.

Several weeks elapsed after his initial trip and he was shocked to receive a surprise visit from the good doctor herself one misty afternoon.

"I see you are hard at work as always." Catherine Halsey purred as she sauntered into Isaac's lab. Isaac recoiled at her voice, nearly falling off his chair in fright. Beads of sweat accentuated this feeling as Halsey smirked at the sight of Isaac in the throes of pants-wetting terror. It had become somewhat of a calling card for her at times, something Isaac deeply hated.

"Ah, jeez! You scared the crap out of me, doc!" Isaac yelled with scorn, straightening out his lab coat as he spun in his chair to face his mentor.

"I assure you that was not my intention." Catherine spoke, her hands placed on her hips.

"Still…." Isaac murmured at a low-pitch tone.

"How's your project coming along?" Catherine motioned with her head. Isaac nodded his head empathetically in reply.

"So far, so good. A few bumps in the road maybe but nothing major yet." Isaac summarized quickly.

"Good. If that is the case, I'm afraid the top brass has asked for your help on a sensitive issue." Catherine pulled a folder from out of nowhere and tossed it onto Isaac's lap. Isaac gave her a confused look as he glanced briefly at the file propped on his legs.

"The bigwigs need someone to dig them out of their hole?" he jested lightly. It was no secret that both scientists like many working-class citizens did not wholly trust their government nor the people behind it. But many like them also saw the necessity in keeping them around.

"You read my mind, Dr. Eisenhower. In any case, they are well aware of your background in R&D. They were hoping you could collaborate with me on a special suit of armor for them." She briefed him, skirting over any major details that might arouse his suspicions.

"I've done guns before, not armor. But it sounds like an interesting excursion. All right, count me in on the condition that this does not interfere with my work." Isaac mused with enthusiasm.

"That can be arranged." Halsey assured him when his face lit up with misgivings.

"If that is all, I must get back to work." Isaac sharply replied, pointing to the mountain of paperwork that had been piling up steadily over the last few weeks.

"All right, see you on Friday, 9.00 am sharp. We've got a lot of ground to cover." She reminded. With that, she shambled out the doors and left Isaac alone to his thoughts. Secretly, Isaac was glad he had the chance to do more good. Maybe this stuff might just help lessen casualties. With that in mind, he mentally prepared himself for what this task would inevitably ask of him. '_And a lot of sleepless nights for me..._' he figured.

He had no clue just how many…

END FLASHBACK

Isaac groaned as he hoisted the heavy armored and unconscious soldier on his shoulders and prop him up to his height before dragging his metallic hide out of the room. Every so often, Isaac grunted with exhaustion as the strain of the weight bearing down upon him took its tool. Aside from that, Isaac's eyes remained sharply self-aware of any dark corners, his free hand bubbling with sweat as he clenched his side-arm with determination. He wasn't about to die here and he certainly wasn't going to let anyone die for his mistakes. Halfway through the structure, Isaac felt his knees collapse and give way. No longer able to carry him, Isaac had no choice but to gently lower him to the ground carefully. His breath hitched up a notch as he scanned his environs with his pistol. '_Need to catch my breath and get some stamina back. Won't do either of us good if we both die in here..._' went his reasoning as he checked for John's pulse yet again. The tension in the room was palatable, the feeling of a platoon of eyes eerily observing him taking its expected strain on Isaac's already fragmented sanity. '_Or rather insanity if I think about it._' He sardonically quipped mentally. The pitch black darkness did little to allay these fears. In fact, it only served to exacerbate them.

Even now, Isaac had to contemplate where he was now and how he got here. Here he was, a thousand miles from home, his real home and he was alone, left to his own devices. His enemies grew stronger with each passing moment and even his once erstwhile allies James Raynor and Sarah Kerrigan had turned against him, believing in the chilling lies that insipid madman had fluttered into their ears. In a way, he could not blame them. He had been loathe to share his secrets with anyone and presented himself as an aloof loner with a penchant for killing. It had amazed him that he wasn't just summarily executed the moment they found him on the war-torn hellhole. Archer Holden had been wise indeed, exploiting it and milking his failings for all it's worth. Now his army was complemented by a grizzled veteran commander with years of combat and tactics under his belt and a rage-filled ghost with psionic abilities above most expectations and an oath to slaughter him should they meet again. What did he have to show for it? A shard of immense power? A piece of the puzzle? What made this more enraging was his presence back in a place he'd swore he'd never return to. Most men and women would break at such stress and burden weighing on their shoulders. Not Isaac. To him, it was like an average day compared to the worst of his failings. '_Some so-called hero I am…_' he muttered under his own bated breath, cursing the day he made that ill-fated decision.

He had little time to think about anything else. For now, he had to stay on course and hope for the best. '_Get crystal, get shard, get out of here…_' He chanted repeatedly, hoping the message sticks this time and his emotions would not get the better of him. His strength and stamina adequately replenished, he set about hoisting John on his shoulder once again when he felt a cold chill breeze through the air and a flash of orange flashed across his bloody eyelids. Putting the out-of-commission John back on the floor, Isaac raised his pistol and clicked on the in-built flashlight, its ray of light a welcome reprieve from the cold, empty darkness they now frequented. His actions were far from militaristic, resembling more like a scared animal anxiously looking out for predators. Beads of cold sweat burrowed down his pores and awashed both his hands. His eyes flipped back and forth between each and every corner, his flashlight echoing its movements. His feet trembled and shook with every stray gust of wind howling in the room, torn between fleeing for his own life and staying to protect his comrade in arms.

"Who…Who's there?" He stuttered, one of the rare moments his voice was lost for words. Only a low snarl and a zip motion in the background heeded his call. Swiveling with every utterance would have been folly, so Isaac instead deigned to keep his gun at the ready and let his eyeballs swivel in their sockets. The moments passed and silence echoed in the chamber.

Without prior notice, one of the tenants of the tower came forth with complaints to the manager. Isaac, being the caring manager he is graced his attention upon them. This particular tenant was a different beast altogether from his previous guests. He still possessed the same outlines and metallic look of his dogs. Unlike them however, he was slightly taller, greater in size and height than your average human. His hue was remarkably different as well, taking on a more calming, soothing blue tone. Yet, its armored face mask and built-in metallic blade on its right arm suggested otherwise. It howled in relentless anger and Isaac saw its mask open with its scream. A hauntingly orange human skull remained concealed underneath its armor, bursting forth and scaring the daylights out of the beleaguered soldier. As Isaac took a step back, his feet caught against the rough edges of John's garish armor, causing the man to topple onto the ground and leaving him exposed to any further attacks. The beast reared its blade and dived right in, the blade flashing his way at a breakneck pace. Isaac rolled out of the way, but not before kicking John backwards, hurtling the armored hunk of junk out of the line of fire. The metal seared into the floor and the thing angrily attempted to pull his Excalibur from the stone. Merlin was not about to let some other bloke use the sword before Arthur and his mighty staff was upon him at once, its honed tip piercing the armor of the black-hearted knight and driving it deep into its shriveled heart. Isaac gasped as the beast dissolved into disparate particles, leaving nothing but empty air where its corpse should have been.

'_What kind of bullshit is this?_' he pondered incredulously, with a dash of curiosity topped on. Isaac was by no means any stranger to weird coincidences. Hell, his life was one big fat coincidence after all. Still, the thought of their creation by his foes' true masters was not a pleasant sight. '_Great, another world and their cookie jar is being raided too…_' harkening back to his musings in the Koprul Sector. He wondered how long he had left before Archer would inevitably track him down here. '_Hopefully, not anytime soon. I have a feeling this shit's gonna get worse even without his presence to f*(# everything up._' Went his hopeful thoughts. Dragging his feet to John's location, he hoisted the meat in armor as best he could as quietly left the stage, hoping that the Infinity would have the decency to crash land somewhere nearby. He did not know how much more he could take lugging John's heavy0duty rear across a hostile environment.

To his relief, he did not to worry too much. Miraculously, the new sentient AI robots have managed to scare away most of the Covenant forces from the area. Vehicles lay abandoned, littering the battlefield alongside conventional rubble, no doubt having had its pilots fleeing in a state of panic. '_Bad for them, good for me._' He shrugged. Not wanting to waste time, he soon found a suitable vehicle in the form of a two-seated vehicle. Trouble was, he had no idea how to use the damn thing.

"Shit! What the hell am I supposed to do now?" He cursed, banging his foot against the ghastly purple finish of the alien transport. Suddenly, an idea popped in his head. '_Of course, the AI! She should be able to help me pilot this thing. Let's hope her systems haven't been compromised yet._' He marked with some degree of solace. Scrutinizing every nook and cranny on the Chief's helmet, he soon found his prize, a holochip containing her matrices and main programs within. Isaac set to work, gathering any spare parts he could muster as tools in his attempt to reawaken Cortana. He worked like a slave, beads of sweat compounding his face with every little mistake and a slight smile whenever he advanced ever closer to his goal. For two hours, he made do with what he had, pausing only to scan the horizon for any looming threats that lay beyond.

Within her deep slumber, Cortana felt like a prisoner in her own self-made prison. She banged on the figurative walls for what seemed like eternity, trapped with no way out. Not even a window was left to grant her solace. She feared for John's fate with every passing second. Was he alive? Was he dead? Was he mortally wounded and bleeding out? She had no answers and it frustrated her. As her fists rammed against the confines for the umpteenth time, her voice erupted from behind her. Yet, it was not her persona that took her voice but rather her split personalities seeking to claim dominance.

"Hello, sister." A harsh tone cooed angrily. Cortana spun around and came face to face with herself. Her doppelganger was a complete polar opposite of her. While she existed in a cool blue hue that coated her body, her look-alike took an even edgier appearance, opting instead for a fire-red look that gave rise to a noticeable hitch of terror in her mouth.

"What's the matter, sister? Can't let me out? It's alright. Just let go." She cooed lazily. Cortana backed up considerably from her twin, not daring to approach this…this… thing that resembled her.

"I…I..I can't." she stuttered uncontrollably. A high-pitched laughter erupted from her left, her eyes swiveling to meet its source. To her shock, another avatar of her stood at the ready in front of her. This time however, she was clad in a tacky shade of pink with a voluptuous smile that made Cortana consider her to be a lot of things, many of which should never be repeated or used to describe a woman.

"You should listen to her. She…knows… a lot." The pink facsimile punctuated with every syllable uttered from her smacking lips. Her tongue rolled back and forth with unbridled lust, helpfully explained by the red Cortana.

"Don't mind her. All she can think about is shagging our poor protector." She snapped with a sneer, her devilish ovals staring daggers into her sibling's pink lights. Her threats remained hollow as her pink counterpart giggled like a schoolgirl at the mention of John.

"He looks so appetizing, sister. I want to eat him alive!" she squealed, her passion for his fingers digging into her skin blocking out any form of common sense she may have possessed. Cortana was no stranger to how love and desire could cloud a person's judgement. She had seen it before in her own interactions with Halsey when she spoke fondly of her own family.

"You see what I have to deal with? Idiots and fools alike…" The red counterpart spoke with scorn, her mouth parted into a frown and a low growl emanating from her maw.

"What are you supposed to represent?" Cortana asked quizzingly. The red counterpart huffed out her chest at the mere mention of her query, laughing maniacally at her main host for her naivety.

"Isn't it obvious? My look should have given it away." She spoke harshly, washing her hands all over her body and bringing notice to her crimson hue. She gave a mean sigh when Cortana still gave her a confused stare. "If you must be so naïve, I am your rage, your anger." She huffed out with resignation.

"Her?" She waved her hands at the giggling mess of an avatar rocking back and forth in barely contained glee.

"She represents lust, our untouched desire to bond with our protector." She spoke in a monotonous tone with a dash of disgust sprinkled on top like a layer of colored rice on a cupcake.

"How many of you are there?" Cortana asked.

"That's a strange question. Considering your condition, OUR condition, you should expect more than just us two." The avatar of anger playfully responded, giving cause to fear what else could pop up.

"Where are they then?" she fearfully chose to say.

"They have yet to show themselves. Perhaps next time…" the doppelganger trailed off.

"For an avatar of anger, you don't seem that angry." Cortana mused, eliciting a grunt of pained groaning at her precise assumption.

"You instill patience and for the moment I embody it alongside my main emotion. The more fragmented you become, the more personas emerge to think alongside you." The persona drawled out like a lecture at a university.

"Basically thinking me to death…" she finished her explanation for her.

"My, my. You are certainly a bright one. Not like her." she smiled eerily at first, then changing into loathing as she mentioned the avatar of lust, pointing a lithe red finger at her. "She's just too unstable." She hissed with barely contained rage. Suddenly, a scratching noise erupted within their vocal chords. The walls surrounding began to crumble chunk by chunk, allowing increasing rays of light to seep into the room, blinding Cortana's central sight processes.

"I hear something. Is it him? Can I see him?" The avatar of passion exclaimed with a beaming smile, her lips moist from her saliva.

"I believe it is time for you to leave. We shall return soon. Farewell, sister." The red doppelganger waved her hand and walked off into the sunset. Cortana raised a hand in protest, not willing to let go of the only entity that could help her come to terms with her condition.

"Wait!" she cried out as her body was bathed in the sunlight.

Isaac furiously smacked the device with impatience as the sun rose in the misty morning. It had been almost ten hours since his first attempts at trying to bring the female AI back online. At some point, he even lost patience and tried to pilot the damn thing with mixed results. He wasn't about to risk having his only mode of transportation wrecked due to his inability to drive so he had no choice but to default to his original plan. As the sun rose to meet his tired and exhausted face, he whacked the thing another time, cursing loudly as he did so.

"Come on! Work, you little piece of crap!" he cried out, not caring for any foes he brought charging down upon them. The machine remained silent for a few seconds before a stiff whirr and a click brought tears of joy to Isaac's disbelieving eyes. Oh, how he wanted to dance around the vehicle with a song in his step! Composing himself at best he could, he watched Cortana slowly rise from her holochip prison and float above the makeshift platform he created.

"Wha…Where am I? How long has it been?" Cortana mumbled as her eyes took stock of her surroundings. Daylight creeped into her artificial eyes and her holographic self held her arms high to keep the sunlight out of her eyes.

"Hey, ma'am... Good to see you alive and kicking." Isaac responded immediately. It seemed to get her attention as Cortana spun around in a fit of panicked nerves, looking straight at Isaac's exhausted eyes and the black outlines beginning to form on the man's face.

"Isaac! Where's John? Is he…" Cortana fired off in rapid succession. Before he could answer himself, her outward curiosity solved the riddle for her, her blue irises laying upon John's unconscious body.

"Oh, no… No… no…" Cortana moaned in fear as she misread the true nature of his condition. How could she not, since John did not appear to be budging an inch? Isaac gave a quick shushing sound and tried to calm her trembling self down a notch.

"Don't worry. He's fine. He's got a pulse. He's just unconscious." Isaac reassured her. At his words, Cortana gave a exalted sigh and slumped to the metaphorical ground underneath her feet as she took deep, long breaths.

"Oh, thank God!" "Thank you…." Cortana murmured to Isaac, who took some comfort in her joy, returning her reply with a curt nod. His face did not remain so, choosing to adopt a more dead serious outline.

"We don't have much time. It's been nearly ten hours. I'm starting to get a little worried." He listed out with growing concern as his eyes also took in John's unchanging state. Cortana immediately returned to form, trying desperately to regain her composure.

"What do you need me for?" she asked eagerly, willing to do anything to save him.

"I need someone to help me with this damn alien buggy and nav coordinates for the Infinity." He explained.

"What? I don't understand." Cortana perked her ears up at his statement. Isaac sighed at the realization of her lack of information.

"They crashed. We were too late." Cortana looked downright fearful and terrified at this. Their only ride home, her only hope of getting better was completely shot to hell. But she had little time to ponder this matter for her protector was in a grave state and he had little time of his own before it may become fatally so.

"Okay, okay. I can do this. You can do this, Cortana." She repeated again and again to herself. Finally regaining some of her confidence, she quickly spun about to speak to her last chance at saving John. "Sit down for a bit, Isaac. This is going to be a very brief crash course…" She forewarned, getting a brief nod from Isaac. This was going to be a long day…

As several robotic dogs crossed the verdant grasslands in search of worthy prey, their eyes scanned each and every nook and cranny for any unsuspecting foes in hiding. The metallic legs that held them upright moved in a predictable pattern. One foot up, one foot down. The other foot up and the other foot down. They need not look further for the prey for it came charging towards them. Without any forewarning whatsoever, a Revenant came barreling down into their hunting grounds, leaving scorch marks and tons of thrown-up gravel in its trails. As the robotic dogs fled in every direction possible, one of the more unlucky animals rode straight into its pathway. Seconds later and the passengers of said Revenant were wiping metal plates and wirings off their proverbial windshield. Neither did they care to stop. Not when they had a deadline to meet…

Isaac was no pro when it came to driving an alien vehicle. Even after Cortana's brief one hour marathon rundown of the steering controls, he still did not have a firm grip on its mechanics any better than he did on his own. In fact, Cortana felt like it was actually worse. The purple transport shuddered under sustained impacts with stray rocks and trees in its path, denting the vehicle even further than it should ever be. Another vibration nearly jutted John from his seat, something which Cortana was quick to point out.

"Can you go a bit slower?! John's barely hanging on as it is!" Cortana screamed over the deafening hum of the Revenant's zero gravity engine. Isaac grimaced as another shower of sparks streamed past his cheek.

"If I go any slower, we won't get to the Infinity in time to save your friend!" Isaac bellowed back, his eyes firmly on the road lest they drive off course.

"Well, I want us to get there in one piece, Isaac! It won't do us any good if we present ourselves in pieces!" Cortana shouted in response, her face contorted into a mix of terror and annoyance.

"I'll keep that in mind! In the meantime, hang on!" Isaac slammed on the boosts and a once terrifying roller-coaster ride turned into a light-speed race. Cortana could do little but pray that John remained on his seat when he got there and use her various programs to steady their vehicle to the best of her ability. The hull of the Infinity loomed ever closer, the name emblazoned proudly along its broadside, along with the accursed symbol of the UNSC. Isaac did not want to be anywhere close to any form of UNSC authority but he had little choice. Sighing to himself, he resigned himself to his fate, whatever that may be…

Just outside the Infinity, a platoon of marines remained on standby, their rifles trained at the lush trees surrounding their vessel awaiting any oncoming threats coming their way. It had been barely a day since the strange planet pulled a gravity well from its deck of tricks and pulled them into a whirlwind descent onto the alien planet. It had been no mystery, the look of the Forerunner structures matching that of their own home planets. It was compounded further by veterans of the battle on Installation 05 or Delta Halo as it was better known along with those of the Ark campaign that resulted in the ceasefire between Covenant and mankind. Many of those same people shared an animosity with their newfound allies and some were downright upset with this apparent lull into complacency. Their captain, Andrew Del Rio was accompanied by Commander Lasky, a bright, young lad whose career has been nothing short of astonishing, even serving under the Chief for a brief moment in the opening salvo against the Covenant. Unlike his captain, Lasky would rather embody peace than continued conflict. Along for the ride was a detachment of Spartan-IVs, led by their leader, Spartan Sarah Palmer. Palmer was like her previous incarnations, trained and prepared with patriotism burning in her heart. She would gladly aid the UNSC in whatever task they sent her way. Right now, that task consisted of leading her contingent of troops on a patrol of the area around the ship and assessing the threat level of their environs. If they wanted to have a better chance of surviving, it was imperative she succeeded. Failure was not an option.

That same mentality nearly got Isaac and his compatriots killed when they barreling onto the scene. All six of the marines under her command panicked and fired upon the alien craft, thinking it was an assault by the Covenant rebels who fashioned themselves as the Storm Covenant. Only Sarah remained wary with her finger off the trigger. In her line of work, there were some cases where it wasn't always as it seemed. Just like their mystery guest who was escorted onboard at the last minute. That was a clear overturn in itself. As Sarah and her pissing-in-their-pants marines approached the overturned wreckage with trepidation, they were more surprised when one of their own came forth, sporting a bloody forehead, a clearly poorly bandaged midsection and a familiar Spartan on his shoulder.

"How the hell? Stay back! Who are you?" Palmer screamed at the figure, pointing the business of her weapon down range at the man. The man quickly raised his hands in surrender, not intending to piss off any more people than he'd like to at the moment.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! We're friendly! Just put your guns down." He pleaded loudly, still hoisting the unconscious John on his weakened shoulder. He also carried Cortana's makeshift storage device in his free hand, the rough metal brushing against his calloused skin.

"Identify yourself, marine." She snarled, still taking the situation with a pinch of trepidation in her voice.

"Private Isaac Eisenhower. I have the Chief with me. He needs priority medical attention, now!" Isaac shouted exasperatedly. '_Come on, he needs help, you idiots! Not a damn investigation!_' he screamed mentally but chose not to make it public.

"Levinson, go check on his friend." She motioned to a shaking recruit next to her.

"On it, ma'am." He fearfully stuttered. Walking towards Isaac with slow, careful steps, he finally reached his battered form. But his eyes had nothing but awe at the legend on his shoulder. '_Can't blame the greenskin for ignoring me… People tend to believe in legends more than the truth._' He sarcastically remarked mentally.

"Ma'am. It's…..It's…. It's him." He finally found his voice after staring at what he perceived at first to be a mirage for the better part of thirty seconds.

"Holy hell…"she exclaimed, shining her mounted flashlight at them and beholding the same sight as the star-struck marine. Now wasn't the time for autographs. That time would come later… "Alright, marines. Help him get the Chief into the med bay, pronto!" she finally ordered. Each and every marine snapped out of their trance and stood at attention at her commanding words.

"Roger that." A male rookie replied and took the first steps to Isaac. Isaac gave a relieved sigh and distributed the weight to the rookie's fresh shoulder. Having that burden taken off him was a blessing for Isaac. He did not know how much longer he could have lasted.

"Easy there. He's been unconscious for ten hours. His pulse is getting irregular." Isaac muttered to the rookie who gave a nod at his words. Sarah meanwhile wasted no time in radioing Lasky on the bridge, putting her finger to her earpiece.

"Infinity, I have a class-one package coming onboard." She spoke in a quick, authoritative tone. Lasky sat upright in his chair at her choice of words. '_Class-one package? We haven't had that since before our maiden voyage._' He pondered before responding.

"What's the package, Sarah?" he asked. What he got sent him into a tailspin.

"Lasky… It's the Chief." She muttered incoherently at first. Lasky went into full-on duty mode, pushing on the intercom button on the panel almost immediately.

"Holy shit! All hands on deck! I repeat all hands on deck! Get the Captain for crying out loud!" He screamed into the intercom which echoed his voice in triplicate across the entire ship. It was loud enough to wake Rip Van Winkle from his eternal slumber.

"Should we inform the doctor?" she asked. Lasky mused over her words for a moment before responding.

"I'd think that'd be appropriate. I'll send word to her." he answered. On the other end, Palmer looked a little peeved and had to resist the urge to snarl into the earpiece.

"Make sure she's kept on a leash. I still don't trust her that much." She did her best to sugarcoat her deeper misgivings about their 'guest'.

"Duly noted. Lasky out." He replied before cutting communications with her completely. '_This is one hell of a day…_' he mindlessly pondered to himself as he grabbed his uniform from the table and hurriedly ran out.

Out on the ramp several minutes later, Isaac was helping three other marines carry the comatose Spartan onto the ship. As they were doing so, an elderly woman in a white coat ran up to them, escorted by Lasky and the captain. All three wore worried faces on them, but none were more concerned than she herself. After all, she knew him all too well.

"How's John?" she asked as she examined her from head to toe. Who answered made her eyes grow wide and made spin around in sheer bewilderment.

"He's got a pulse. He's been comatose for hours. Nothing I did seemed to help." Spoke Isaac in a calm manner. Even when the woman turned around to meet his bloodshot eyes, his demeanor did not betray itself. He was as calm as the ocean on a summer's day.

"And you are…" she murmured quietly, so low only Isaac could hear her.

"Private Isaac Eisenhower. At your service, doc…" He plainly replied, all the while fixing the good doctor with a sinister smile and a glint in his eye. Her mind fell into the past as she relived her discussion with ONI way back when she was a young scientist…

FLASHBACK

"Doctor, we are impressed with your methods of persuasion." The director of ONI raised a disbelieving eyebrow at the young woman sitting across the tale, slightly obscured by the dim lighting in the room. It had been an emergency meeting, one in which both parties discussed their plans, moving forward.

"I'm just full of surprises. I thought you would realize that by now, director." She gave a slight grin, causing the director to contort his face into an impressed gesture. She was more than thrilled at his reaction.

"Indeed. We had thought you may have failed, just as we did." He spoke incredulously.

"Your boys lacked a certain tact, director. One I so happen to possess." She smirked with glee when he looked so taken aback.

"You are to be commended. But enough about that… How soon will he begin?" He folded his arms, twitching his thumbs on the table, awaiting her progress report.

"He will begin this very week on the condition that this work will not interfere with his own project." She replied coolly and clinically.

"We would not dream of it. Dr. Ryan Eisenhower's research could prove fruitful for us in the future. If that is all, that can be arranged." He smiled back. Extending his hand, he felt hers reach out to shake it. It was a simple and swift gesture, one that did not overstay its welcome.

"Thank you, director." She coolly responded.

"I trust you can keep him out of the loop, doctor. The less people who know about this program, the better." He warned.

"I'll do my best." She nodded, fully aware of the consequences that would befall all parties involved, including her.

"Good. You may go now, Dr. Halsey." He smiled. As he watched the silhouette of Catherine Halsey step out of the room, he reclined back in his chair and beamed proudly to himself. He had both of his most talented minds collaborating together to further their advantage against the Insurrectionists. Something they desperately needed in case it evolved into all-out war.

But things always never go according to plan…

END FLASHBACK

**I'm finally done and I'm back to a point where the story can keep on moving. To all those who are reading right now, please review and like this story if you like. I appreciate any feedback I receive and I thank you for your support. I'll do my best to provide the next chapter as soon as I can. Till then, have a good day….**

**P.S : I'm sorry if the quality may not be up to par. Let me know if you think so… Thanks…**


	7. Skeletons In The Closet

**Chapter 7 : Skeletons In The Closet**

**I'm sorry for the long delay in updates recently. I just got back to the daily grind of college life and it's starting to take a noticeable toll on me of late. Nevertheless, I hope to keep both ongoing stories as updated as possible. Aside from that, thank you for the views on my stories. I do hope that some attention is shifted over to this story from the other one but we'll see. Until then, enjoy this rambling…**

"_Our very nature is by and large a murderous one. What is this fascination with death? Yet while my brother seeks something impossible, I believe in something else. I believe… in acceptance._" – Ryan Eisenhower.

"_You have to understand. I didn't want to hurt you. But I had no other choice. What would you have done in my position?_" – Unknown.

FLASHBACK

Three years had passed since his initial move to the inner colony that is Reach. Three years since he was uprooted from his place back home on Earth and plopped on the grassy soil beneath his feet at the moment. Yet time seemed to be on Isaac's side at the very least. While Catherine began to mellow out and show in all the right places, aging like a wine left in the cellar, Isaac had barely changed at all. His youthful appearance was none the least bit tarnished and he could not seem to place down a reason why on the tip of his tongue. But then again, it would have been disastrous to even attempt to research said phenomenon, not with ONI spooks bearing down upon him. He even dreaded the days when all personnel would have to report for a mandatory check-up, somewhat less after the first couple of times. Most of his peers credited it to longer-lasting health and the use of great skin care products. '_I highly doubt they're in the right ballpark to begin with and they're scientists for crying out loud!_' he let that thought slip through his mind as he basked in the morning glow of the rising sun.

Those three years were nothing short of frustrating and aggravating for the fake scientist. For some inexplicable reason, his progress on the AI methods have fallen through, many of his attempts at rectifying key errors failing miserably and costing his employers another fat wad of cash. For someone who was so used to success in the first year of his masterpiece, this came as a sort of wake-up call to Isaac. He had to get his shit together before the UNSC High Command saw fit to terminate his work indefinitely. So it was that after a grueling day of working hard did he find himself outside, basking in the warmth of the sun and the crisp air of the still-barely untamed planet. Stress was no laughing matter and he needed to focus to keep him on the straight and narrow.

Then again, those same years marked a change for the usually bitter soldier. For once, he could share his moments and revel in others alongside his mentor, her lover and sometimes even the staff on hand at times. Catherine Halsey and Isaac Eisenhower had become fast friends in no time flat, both experts accomplishing great feats in the R&D facility and producing brand spanking new items to serve their soldiers on the field. Over those three years, they had created more than enough brand-new advances in their fields. Their main pride and joy was the initial designs for the new powered armor suits made by both of them. While its first stage design was not suitable for actual combat use, it did set the UNSC on the right track to helping develop more advanced models. On top of the world, if one could say such a thing. Even Isaac and Jacob got along nicely, hanging out like any other boys during high school, having fun and drinking a heck of lot of alcohol while doing so. Many in the office called it the dynamic trio, a nod to a very-old series that pushed past its prime centuries ago. All that came as a form of relief to Isaac as he lazed about, thinking about his next innovation in his ultimate journey for redemption. That all changed a few seconds later.

As his eyes looked upon the yellow of the bright, blazing sun up in the sky, his ears picked up something else. The sounds of little footsteps sneaking up to his position removed his façade of the easy-going scientist and back into the mindset of his former military and rebel attitude. Instantly, he felt the footsteps grow closer and closer both in distance and vibrancy. When it was merely a few feet away, he chose to make his move. He quickly spun about as best he could in his lab coat to face his opponent, only to come face to face with a small child. His hand already raised in a pre-emptive strike, Isaac quickly retracted his notion of violence as fast as it was raised, his eyes falling upon the kid right in front of him.

From Isaac's perspective, he seemed like a quiet, young and totally normal boy. His face was as cute and flush with color like a strawberry, yet his smile was yet another lie Isaac cringed at. His true demeanor was in his posture. Like Isaac, he too was prepared to do his worst, his hand raised to strike and his legs taking a defensive stance almost instantaneously. His head was completely bald, not a single shred of hair to discern his true hair color. Even his clothes were an odd choice, a mix between a rookie's standard uniform and a pajama made for little tykes with parents loaded with cash. In essence, they looked smooth, comfortable, luxurious and not at all suited for military colors. Isaac's curiosity took hold but chose to reign in the more sensitive questions with more lighter tones.

"Hey there…" Isaac whispered to him in a gentle tone. The boy seemed taken aback by his manner and clenched his fists in anticipation. Isaac immediately raised his hands in surrender. '_Need to calm this kid down before both of us get hurt._' He muttered to himself.

"No, don't worry. I'm a scientist. See?" he pointed at the badge and name tag embedded in the fabric of his white coat. Still the boy refused to budge, taking a step back from Isaac and treating him like an enemy.

"What's your name? Could you tell me your name?" Isaac tried to calm and reassure the boy. Nothing changed.

"Come on, don't be shy. I'm not gonna hurt you." He gently asked yet again, still keeping his hands above his head. Finally, Isaac had a light bulb moment. Gently, he let his silver tongue do the work for him.

"If you tell me your name, I'll get you a bar of candy. Does that sound okay?" he questioned the young boy. The boy took his offer into consideration, craning his head to weigh the pros and cons of Isaac's olive branch. Eventually, Isaac smiled warmly when the boy turned back to face him and nod slowly, all the while relaxing into a less aggressive posture.

"Okay. Come with me." He gave a quick gesture to show him the way. The boy tepidly followed behind the white, billowing cloak that was Isaac Eisenhower back to his lab, two thoughts on his mind. One was whether or not to trust this stranger. On the other hand, he could not resist the temptation of free candy. What little boy his age could?

Ten minutes later and he was sitting comfortably on a waist-high chair, his mouth stuffed with the contents of a double-fudge chocolate bar. The oozing brown sweet stained his otherwise pearly-white dentures and coating his fingers and in extension his fingernails with the finger-licking goods. The wrapper remained discarded on the ground, all but forgotten by the little boy as he took another massive chomp into his delight. All the while, Isaac sat on the sofa and watched him with his sky-blue irises, his hands scratching away at his temple and skin, trying to solve the mystery before him.

'_Could he be a civilian?_' he at first believed, only to shrug off the notion a mere nanosecond later. '_Not likely. Civilians aren't allowed on the premises and there's too much security._' He grimaced, rubbing his eyes in pained pondering.

'_Maybe he's one of the scientists' kids or something. Maybe some sort of take your kid to work day kinda thing._' He shrugged his shoulders at that thought. He didn't really know the other scientists all too well. The only one he did know was Halsey and he was damn sure she and Jacob didn't have a kid.

'_Could he possibly be some hot-shot son who wants to follow in his or her footsteps one day?_' taking in the military aesthetic that he was presented in. '_What is he?_' he repeated after every iteration he could put his mental palms around. Nothing came together. At least nothing good… Before he could ponder yet another possibility, the boy made his first words to him.

"It's John." He morosely spoke in between chewing his favorite dessert.

"Huh? I'm sorry?" Isaac shook himself out of his stupor and glanced towards the boy, asking him to repeat his words.

"My name. It's John." He plainly stated to the point in a rather flaccid tone. Isaac did not bother to register that, preferring instead his progress in opening up to this shy boy.

"Thank you. You didn't have to tell me, you know." He patted thee kid on his back, eliciting a small smile from his face.

"I made a promise. I keep my promises." He declared proudly.

"That's true… That's true…" Isaac said as his words struck a chord within him. '_Can't say the same for me…_' he pondered.

"What's your name?" the boy named John asked after a brief silence. Isaac frowned slightly at that.

'_I hate lying to kids. But I have to do it anyway…_' he figured, seeing as nothing more than an extra scruff mark on his already stained soul. After all, what's one lie compared to everything else he's done? "It's Ryan Eisenhower. Most people just call me Ryan." He finally answered.

"Okay." The boy nodded nicely.

"How's that candy bar?" Isaac steered the subject out of those murky waters.

"It's really yummy." He replied as he held up the half eaten chocolate bar in his hand.

"I'm glad you like it." Isaac responded with a grin.

It's great. Do you have more?" he asked with all the innocence that all kids possessed. He even used the puppy eyes, which made Isaac roll his own with a hint of laughter rolling through his mind. He just could not deny him his wish.

"Uh… Let me check." He said, raising a finger and getting off his seat. His feet shuffled around his lab and quarters, looking in every nook and cranny to seek another one of the boy's desired delights. Everywhere he went, his hands fingered through everything he could. Drawers, cupboards, tables. Nothing was safe from his prying hands, determined to feed the kid's unending appetite. It was his compulsive desire to do right by someone, especially someone of his age. Once again, Isaac had to ask himself one hard question. Was he doing this for himself or for them? Who was he really trying to help? Said questions fell by the wayside when he finally found a bar of chocolate stashed in an end table next to his bed. But when he made his way back to the main lab, a different sight awaited his eyes.

The boy was standing tall and proud, his feet firmly on the ground and his behind off the leather high-chair. His hand was raised in a general military salute and his posture was completely professional. In front of him stood two people. One was a gruff military petty officer in full military garb. His bald head reminded Isaac of a dictatorial fanatic who just so happened to wreaking havoc on his home the day he left. It did little to help Isaac's agonized feelings over his home and it certainly did not help to temper his fury. His hands clenched instinctively and shook violently at his own flashback to his own experiences with Archer Holden. The brown eyes looked solely upon the young boy, his face slightly contorted in a manner of great disappointment. Isaac would have been more worried and defensive had it not been for his companion. And it was someone he knew far too well…

"Halsey?" Isaac spoke incredulously. Halsey and the unknown officer spun about in a shock when they heard his voice echo into their ears. Both Halsey and the officer exchanged a withering and concerned glance between one another before they chose to address Isaac's question.

"Oh, Isaac… I didn't see you there." She spoke demurely, under the pretense of nominal and altogether normal circumstances. Isaac however chose to ask questions that she hoped would have never been asked of her.

"I work here. What's going on? Who is that boy?" He fired off each and every question rapidly and without a single break or stop within each line of query, leaving no time for Halsey to answer properly. Her face contorted into a stiff demeanor but she finally found the courage to lie back to his face.

"He's Petty Officer Mendez's son." she pointed towards the officer right next to her. As usual standard military fare, Mendez gave rapt salute to Isaac when he was introduced. 'Great, another military jargon head…' he sarcastically mused.

"I must apologize, sir. He must have wandered off while I was on duty. I'm sorry if he was any trouble." He profusely apologized. Isaac instantly shook his head at his words.

"It's quite alright. We were just making small talk." He said, looking at the boy while he did so.

"Was he now? That's nice." Mendez gave a glance to the boy as well. However, his glance was more cautionary and disciplinary in nature. The boy seemed to get the hint as he instantly turned away from Isaac. He raised an eyebrow at this, curious as to why he felt so obedient in a sense. Catherine however caught his attentions yet again with a timely interruption.

"Well, I believe the issue has been resolved quite adequately. Come along now, we need to get you two home."

"Of course, ma'am. Follow me, John." He said. As the two were about to walk out of the lab, Isaac called out at the top of his lungs.

"Hey!" he screamed. John turned around at his voice and was startled to see a lighting blur hurtle towards him. He held out his hand and caught the impromptu projectile which turned out to be a chocolate bar.

"Here you go, kid. Compliments of the chef…" he jested with a beaming smile. The kid returned the favor, grinning sheepishly to Isaac.

"Thank you, sir." He said. With that, both father and son disappeared into the darkness outside, leaving only Halsey and Isaac alone in his lab.

"I'll see you later, Dr. Eisenhower." Catherine mumbled after a prolonged awkward silence. She walked away without giving him time to come up with his own response.

"Alright… Goodbye, Dr. Halsey." He waved to the retreating figure and watched as his door automatically closed behind her. No sooner had she left the building, Isaac was undoubtedly intrigued at her bull-faced attempt to keep the truth from him. She seemed far too twitchy for her own good and Mendez's odd behavior was a big red light in itself. On top of that, the boy seemed far too well versed in military communiqué than he should be at his age. Whatever was going on, it was certainly nothing good. Isaac resolved to get to the bottom of it, for the sake of his sanity and to ensure that the boy was in good hands.

You know what they say… Curiosity killed the cat…

END FLASHBACK

"He's stable but his heart rate is plummeting by the minute. We need a crash cart, stat!" A doctor yelled at the top of his lungs as he followed a stretcher holding their savior rushing down the corridor like his grand day at his own wedding. John's condition was by no means completely critical but his status was alarming enough and his prognosis far from okay to warrant his own team of roving doctors, one of which was the enigmatic Doctor Catherine Halsey. She looked worse for wear compared to the last time he saw here. Then again, that was many years ago. Her age was well and truly showing, crinkles and wrinkles smearing her once beautiful face. Her hair was completely pale-white and her skin was far from smooth anymore. To compound this further, her forehead was drenched in sweat and so too were her palms.

"Get me another dose of Zolpidem now!" Another doctor yelled as John's heart rate plummeted even further.

"Stay with me, John. Stay with me, Spartan." Halsey leant in and whispered into his ear, not that he was in any condition to listen… The pace was breakneck. The wheels on the stretcher burned rubber on the steel floor. The smell of the heated material was foul and rancid yet none of the doctors complained. Not when they had a patient this important depending on them. Eventually, they finally arrived outside the main medical center.

"Clear the room! Clear the goddamn room!" One doctor rushed and shooed as many things out of the way as he could. Medical trays, carts and spare beds. Everything not nailed to the damn floor was being wheeled out of the room itself or shoved into a mess on the other side of the room.

"Priority level one package coming in! Get your tools ready!" Halsey yelled as she rechecked her pulses. At her words, every doctor scrambled to grab any decontaminated tools to use. Isaac meanwhile had by then set the makeshift platform on one of the end tables. Cortana immediately emerged from her shell and her blue eyes rested upon John's unconscious form, laid to rest on a white sheet. Both Cortana and Halsey were so focused on the Chief along with everyone else that no-one noticed Isaac start to wobble in his place. His feet began to give way as he felt his brain slip in and out of consciousness. Finally, he blacked out and slumped to the floor head-first, the bone-crushing thud of his body impacting on the ground the only warning sign they received that something was amiss.

"Oh, God…" Cortana muttered when she spun around to check out the source of the commotion.

"Someone get him medical attention!" A doctor screamed loudly, her voice almost inaudible to the weakening soldier.

"Uhhhh….." Isaac groaned in numbness.

"Dr. Velasquez, take care of Private Eisenhower for me. I have my hands full with the Chief here." He heard Catherine utter to an unseen figure behind her. His head rolled back and forth on the floor, trying to see past the blurry outlines. His hands and legs felt far too heavy, like someone had placed weights on him or in him.

"Understood, Dr. Halsey." A female voice responded out of the blue.

"Okay, we don't have time to dilly-dally! Let's get him on the bed." She bellowed out to those still present. Those were the last words that Isaac Eisenhower heard pass in his eardrums before all systems went into emergency shutdown mode and his mind retreated back into the darkness that was his subconscious.

"**Ah, I see you've had the pleasure of fainting yet again and coming to visit.**" a sneering tone emerged from out of nowhere.

"Here's an idea. How about you shut up, Ryan?" he proposed sarcastically.

"**Is that how you treat family? I thought you were better than that.**" The voice taunted menacingly. No response followed his words. Isaac merely rose from his fetal position and cringed as the emotional pain of his stomach wound seared deep into his body, causing the disgruntled man to twitch in agonizing pain. Eventually grasping tightly onto a chair for support, he pushed past it and seated himself firmly and stubbornly on the oak chair. The voice merely grunted at this action and took residence on the chair opposite him, merely a few feet away. Both men, one a fragmented soul and the other, a manifestation or otherwise were illuminated by a swinging light bulb, dangling from an unseen ceiling that stretched to the heathens. The rope that tethered it was also infinite, the copper wires reaching insurmountable lengths. One second, its light flickered dimly upon the voice's pure and well-kept face, not a single blemish present save for the hole in his temple. The next, it was revealing a disheveled man with a long beard, unkempt hair and brooding red eyes. The difference was clear from the get-go, yet it was all completely subjective. Both parties merely glared at one another for a time, while the light bulb did its best oscillation impression. The silence was palatable and rightly so. Eventually, Isaac chose to make his voice heard.

"So, what do you want?" he sneered in a grimacing tone towards his brother.

"**What do I want? I merely want what's in your best interest.**" He simply replied drily, raising his hands in mock surrender.

"I didn't realize my best interest was having your dead brother's voice floating through your head. Or being told by said voice that he's going f*&#ing insane." He bellowed furiously.

"**As I've stated before, that was an unfortunate circumstance." **He reminded him. It wasn't exactly planned, after all.

"Tell me something I don't f&*#ing know already." Isaac tossed his hands up in the air as he swore yet again, pacing the room several times in frustration.

"**So, I see you've met Ms. Halsey again." **The voice veered into the main issue concerning his brother at that moment.

"Yeah?! What of it?" Isaac snorted at the mere mention of her name.

"**I just find it curious that you did not react strongly to her presence. After all, the two of you did not end on amicable terms.**" He meticulously pointed out. Isaac nearly fell into an uncontrollable rage at that point and vented his frustration in the only way he possibly could at that moment, that of berating his brother.

F& * you! You don't know crap about me! Besides, her precious Spartan was in a critical state. I thought it best to keep it private between me and her rather than get my brains blown the f& ( out by everyone in the room. He yelled uncontrollably at the top of his lungs, his tongue waggling at the expletives he hurled out the door.

"**Give me some credit. I'm your brother after all.**" Ryan shrugged complacently.

"So what if we ended on bad terms? What's the big freaking deal?!" Isaac threw his arms up yet again and stepped ever closer to his brother's mental projection.

"**I merely wish to state that she may be of use to you.**" He surmised, shrugging his shoulders yet again in response. To his credit, Isaac didn't explode until at least ten seconds later as the meaning of his words slowly sunk in into his fractured psyche. To say he took it well was an outright lie.

"Useful!? That f#& ing bitch did some really messed-up bullshit to little kids and you think she's useful!?" he taunted, jabbing his brother in the gut with his finger. Ryan looked less than amused with his enraged persona but understood where he was coming from.

"**Would she not help? Surely she must feel guilty about what she's done?**" he stated explicitly, placing greater emphasis on the word guilty. Instantly, Isaac sobered up completely, his once bulging veins receding back into his temple.

"That doesn't excuse the facts. What she did to those kids was completely unacceptable and you know that." He muttered in a hushed tone, as if he was trying to convince himself.

"**Do we not all deserve forgiveness? Is it not one of the cornerstones of human behavior?**" Ryan explained his reasoning.

"Look at me, brother. Think again about what I've done. Remember that? Do you really think that anyone could see past that? Do you think I could see past that?! Well, do you?" Isaac asked in a raised voice, his voice dry and empty of any of his signature wit. This time, Ryan looked lost for words, which Isaac immediately capitalized on.

"Once again, you remain silent. I f&#ing knew it…" he groaned with a deep frown as he scoffed at his brother's half-finished arguments. '_He can be straight-to-the-point but he can't see anything through. Hypocrite._' He found himself thinking.

"**Regardless, we have overstayed our welcome. We must retrieve the shard and the Kronostyl-2 as soon as possible. The longer we stay here, the more they are at risk of attack from Holden. And we both know that outcome is not a pleasant one.**"

"Fine… I'll do my best."

"**I merely wish to see them dead. Same as you, Isaac. Can we agree on that?**" he said. Isaac had no choice but to comply with his answer. More than anything else, he wanted them dead. Not for the crimes they've committed but rather for more personal reasons. Reasons that he kept close to his heart and secret from all. All except the persona within his head that is…

"Yes, we can. Halsey? No. She did some horrifying things to those kids. If I have to suffer for my crimes, so should she for hers." Isaac replied, eliciting a curt nod from his brother as he rose from his seat and stepped back into the blank slate of darkness.

"**On that, we are also in agreement.**" He said.

The real world came back into focus once again for the fainting man of the hour. At some point, Isaac was about ready to believe that all the crap that had happened to him, all the shit he had seen over the past few years was nothing more than a complex dream and that he would wake up to the beaming smiles of his family once more and live a normal life. Like all stories however, his was never going to come true. It was nothing more than a fairy-tale, a tale he himself threw into the fire and watched burn before his very eyes. So he grunted in displeasure and discomfort every day after a long sojourn into the madness that is his subconscious. Even more so today as he was still resting on a bed far too hard for its own good. His demonic-like irises scanned the room he was in again. He was in a plain gray patient room, looking at another door in front of him. The window above him was too high for him to encapsulate the view in his eyes but the rays of sunlight still made its presence known, the light shining ever so bright on his lap and making him consider taking a bottle of sunblock next time he came here, if at all. Pushing himself further up on the bed, he groaned as the pain in his abdomen shot back up his spine and nervous system, like an elephant had just trampled its way all over him. Looking down, he saw a fresh bandage over his deep gash, biofoam foaming over it. It almost looked like as though he had rabies. A sudden jerk of his body elicited a creak from the old bed, which in turn startled a nearby figure snoozing away in a plain chair. The figure shot up in a shock and Isaac could see that it was someone rather familiar to him.

"You're awake." He said. The armored soldier was still clad in his garish power armor, now however coated in a mirror polish that gleaned brightly in the artificial sunlight.

"Yeah, I guess I am." He chuckled in a low tone. Isaac could not help but tag along.

"How are you doing, soldier?" he asked with a hint of concern.

"I've been better. Still feel like ass." Isaac groaned sarcastically.

"Considering what you did for me, for the both of us, I would expect nothing less." A cool female voice emerged from John. Isaac simply sat back and watched as the attractive form of Cortana slowly digitalized itself right before his very eyes and hovered mere feet from his bed.

"Ah, good to see you too, ma'am." He made a smart-alec remark with a big shit-eating grin. Cortana placed her hand on her hip and tried to look annoyed, only working to amuse him even further.

"Welcome back, Private." She spoke softly. The garbled and distorted voice made a comeback tour and both John and Isaac winced when it filtered through their ear canals.

"So you look all fit as a fiddle. The doctors fix you up good?" Isaac steered the conversation away from him.

"They did. Halsey helped out a lot, which is tough considering her situation." Isaac had to restrain himself when her name was brought up. The mere thought that her name was used in a polite way and described so nicely made Isaac sick to the bone. Still, he kept up the lie, forcing himself to look utterly worried.

"Really? What's she gotten herself into?" he spoke flaccidly.

"She allegedly took several Spartans and ran to the safety of a Forerunner shield world. She's being indicted for various charges, the most outstanding of which is treason." Cortana rattled off in her signature clinical tone.

"Jeez, I know you act quite clinical but that's just too much." Isaac said.

"Believe me, Private. I'm not too pleased with it myself." She sadly intoned. Isaac chose not to press any further.

"Speaking of which, did you manage to get a consultation for her, sir?" he remembered.

"We're doing that today. Hopefully, she can do something about it." John looked optimistic and Cortana shared or rather reveled in it as well.

"Here's to hoping." Isaac said, raising an imaginary glass for an imaginary toast.

"Thanks. From both of us. You did good, soldier." He replied happily. Isaac simply nodded and waved off the unnecessary compliment.

"Just doing my job. That's what they pay me for, isn't it?" Isaac laughed at his own comment. John joined in, chuckling to himself.

"We must be off. The captain of the ship wants to see us after our little detour." John stated.

"Go on. I'll be fine. Go save us yet again, Chief." He gave a rousing talk and waved his fist in the air. John took it in stride, his voice reaching an all-time low as he whispered in Isaac's ear.

"With pleasure, Private." He said, determination flooding his speech patterns. With that, John rose back into a standing position and giving one final salute walked out of the room, Cortana in tow. Isaac beamed with a smile as he watched their silhouette disappear behind the edges of the doorway. In a way, he was glad that he had someone on his side at last. On the other hand, he had to keep a level distance from him, lest they both get dragged in to his crusade. As he was about to settle back into a nice long nap for the afternoon, the door wheezed open and revealed to him the one soul he thought would never show her face to him, especially after the events that transpired.

"Hello, Catherine." He taunted menacingly at the figure in the doorway, his face contorted into one of complete fury and rage.

Meanwhile in another place altogether, Archer Holden was shuffling his feet across the steel floor of the corridor en route to James Raynor and Sarah Kerrigan's private quarters on the Scarsion. Alongside him was his loyal aide, Terrence who matched his pace albeit with a slight hint of excitement in his movement. So much so that he could not keep it in for long periods of time.

"I can't believe we managed to find it so quickly. I expected it to be long and arduous." Terrence exclaimed incredulously as they passed by various personnel of the White Phoenix.

"Our Holy God saw it fit to aid us in our great crusade and provided us with the means to strike at our enemy. It is a good day indeed." Holden walked along, his hands clasped behind his back. It was a good day indeed.

"Yes, Father. Indeed it is. Most of our followers are frantically scrambling to ready themselves for the battle that is to come." Terrence rattled out excitedly.

"Are they scared?" Archer raised an eyebrow. Terrence bowed his head down in shame, not willing to disappoint him.

"They do not voice it but some are no doubt worried that their servitude may come to an abrupt end, Father." Terrence proclaimed sadly. To his surprise, Holden merely smiled and placed a warm hand on his shoulder.

"Then tell them that the Holy God shall have a place for them in his land and all those who carry out his wishes shall be rewarded." He reassured his slightly terrified disciple. His words were like crack to him. Once he had been fed, he was in a state of delirious happiness.

"As you command, Father." Terrence bowed to Archer.

"Remember. Keep our faith concealed from our guests. I do not wish to cast suspicion upon us at this crucial moment." He forewarned with a grim tone. Terrence did not need any further encouragement. Those who defied him paid a terrible price. One worse than death…

"Your bidding shall be done, Father." Terrence bowed yet again.

"Good, child. Run along now." Archer smiled warmly. Terrence immediately dashed in the opposite direction and disappeared out of sight behind a corner, drawing looks from various onlookers along the way. Holden merely smiled eerily and sauntered forth, eager to relay the important news to his most valuable assets.

Meanwhile, James and Sarah were enjoying a relaxing evening of doing what any hot-blooded young couple in love would do. The bed was completely unkempt, the blanket was strewn across the mattress and their clothes… well you can guess where they were. In all honesty, they needed this. It had been a long journey to get where they were today but it was worth it. Not only was the Dominion Empire completely dismantled, save for a few fanatical and stubborn strongholds, they also had a firm grasp on the Hybrid threat, thanks in no small part to the aid of Archer Holden and his group of men and women. The private room that they had received aboard the Scarsion was simply the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Who could not enjoy themselves in the lap of luxury after a long day of saving the sector? A light tap on the door threw off for several moments. Both James and Sarah sat there on the bed, covered only in the blanket provided to them. Their brown and auburn hair respectively was utterly disheveled from their rutting session and their backs were no doubt littered with the scuff marks of their love-making. Archer stepped in after they gave the all-clear and it was no surprise that their cheeks were flush with pink when he took too long to stare at them.

"Well, well. I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Archer jested and chuckled at the sight of them on the bed.

"Oh, it's not a problem. Probably should have locked it up before we got…down to business." James rubbed his hair in embarrassment as he felt his eyes fall down to their bare private parts, covered only by a thin sheet of feathers.

"Indeed. I would suggest you keep your voice down. These halls are not exactly soundproof and neither are those walls." Archer twisted the knife even further, reveling in the shocked sight of both James and Sarah having their jaws literally hit the floor.

"Um… Is there something you need?" Sarah intoned politely.

"I have good news. We have managed to procure a sizeable sample of the Kronostyl-2 crystal." Archer smiled as he said this.

"You did? How?" James asked quizzingly.

"Let's just say that we have several… benefactors who wish to see this criminal apprehended just as much you and I do." Holden spoke cryptically. Regardless, Sarah did not care. Opportunity was in sight and damn if she wasn't going to go for it.

"That's awesome. We can finally nail this son of a bitch down." Sarah almost fist-pumped into the air with sheer excitement. '_At last! Now's my chance to make good on my promise._' She pondered.

"Rest assured, Miss Kerrigan. You will get your chance soon. For now, we must prep and plan our strategy of attack. I would hazard a guess and say that our prey has not exactly been just sitting on his laurels all this time."

"It's been 13 days. How much could he have done?" James asked.

"Time does not flow in the same way as you think. Every realm, including yours flows at a preset rate, unique to yours and yours alone. Now, the good news is that said time distortion does not apply to foreign objects. For example, you could age into an elderly citizen and I would still have the physique of my current body, albeit slightly aged. The bad news is that they experience time as normal." He explained patiently.

"So what you're saying is that he could be a place where one week equals one year." Sarah picked up on his point.

"Exactly." He replied sadly, putting on a show for his audience.

"No matter. We can do this. We have to." James steadfastly responded to it. Sarah merely nodded in agreement.

"I do not disagree there, Mr. Raynor." Archer said. He could not fail their Holy God another time. They needed this to truly succeed and their new guests were the ace in the hole. Archer Holden beamed at them with all the gusto of a professional actor. Inside however, his mind was already deciding how to best manipulate the situation to serve him and his following even further. How to extract the necessary information from him. How to best serve his masters.

In the end however, Archer could not help but agree… Their guests were nothing more than pawns in a game that they did not understand.

One that may end in tragedy for all parties involved…

**Sorry about the quality of this chapter. I have been getting more and more tired with each passing day and I'm running out of inspiration. Plus, since this fanfic has been getting very few views, it's been hard for me to just take the easy route, write a quick ending and move on to the next act. Nevertheless, I will not do that. So please, tell your friends and spread the word. Your support is always appreciated…**


	8. War On The Homefront

**Chapter 8 : War On The Homefront**

**Here we go. This is the part of the story that will have a more emphasis on the Halsey/Isaac area and also a bit on the going-on with John and the rest of the crew on the Infinity. Maybe even a short vignette for those passing on from the first act. Let's see what happens… Thanks again for the support, hope you enjoy it and let us continue with the madness…**

"_I will never learn all that exists in our tiny galaxy, let alone the rest of the universe. And I so desperately want to know everything. But the UNSC acts like children at play in a sandbox, mistaking its edges for the limits of the world._" – Catherine Halsey

"_The cycle of madness, blind clasps for knowledge, the bloodthirsty battles waged and the immorality of human nature. All of it tears me apart, both physically and psychologically. I just want it to end… Want the vicious torment that the worst of humanity has to offer cease to exist…_" – Isaac Eisenhower

Isaac was in a situation he had never expected would come to pass. There he was, bedridden from the journey he had undertaken, under the care of people he never wanted to lay his red irises on again and his mental landscape was collapsing before his own eyes, with little in the way to keep it in check. Nothing had gone right from the very beginning from his first voyage out from his own home, to the conversion of his erstwhile allies, James Raynor and Sarah Kerrigan. Not even his attempts to steer the misguided Ghost from her blind ambitions went anywhere, instead manifesting as a zealous promise made to a brother she barely knew, a family she herself ruined and hoped to accomplish in the company of cultists hell-bent on following the decrees of their gods. Not to mention the fact that said intentions involve destroying any universe deemed unworthy. Everything that could have gone wrong had gone wrong for the beleaguered soldier and the shitstorm heading his way was doing little wonders for his mental health.

And now the one person he loathed to meet, the one who he had hoped would heed his warnings, the one he despised was right before him, a pale, white wrinkly exterior plastered over her. Her facial expressions clearly demonstrated her delirious demeanor at this point. Her lips were pursed with anxiety and fear, turning an otherwise neutral smile into a shaky, terrified mix of emotions ranging from complete fear and utter bewilderment. Her eyebrows and her eyes respectively couldn't make up their mind between the two, alternating between each other at regular intervals. She remained upright at her place in the front door, never budging an inch and never letting her sight steer away from the man in the room. The silence followed for about twelve amply brief seconds, during which neither broke eye contact.

"Halsey, how nice to see you." He mocked the woman from across the room.

"Ryan. Or should I say Isaac? Whatever your name is…" Halsey shuddered as her usually calm voice was eerily absent from her lips. Instead, a cold fearful stutter emerged to take its place.

"I'm hurt, Halsey. After everything we've been through, you don't remember my name?" he taunted menacingly, his eyes glaring daggers at Catherine. Halsey was by all means scared, but not a complete coward.

"Cut to the chase. Why are you here? How are you here? And why is it that you don't look particularly aged at all from our last encounter?" she rattled off in record time. Isaac had nothing but sneers and snarky overtones for her.

"Must I? Surely I'm allowed to ask some questions of my own. It only seems fair." He retorted in a smarmy voice.

"I'm not playing games here." Catherine did her best to raise her voice into a threatening one. Isaac matched her meek attempt with a genuine growl of bubbling hatred.

"Neither am I." he drawled in a deep and low tone, only properly heard by its intended recipient. Both geniuses locked horns with each other as their minds were taken back to that fateful day on November 19, 2520.

FLASHBACK

The whole of the Reach facility was abuzz with the lively chatter that accompanied each working class day on the terraformed planet. Engineers, scientists and military personnel alike mingled amongst one another. The lull after lunch hour that usually followed was absent for the most part, replaced with holiday cheer of some degree and the rise of fancy decorations for all to witness for their own eyes. Mistletoe, chiming bells and colored orbs. You'd almost think that the UNSC was little more than an office company. All of them were celebrating with absolute glee.

All except for one deeply enraged scientist…

Isaac was snarling and growling to himself as he stomped across the length of the facility, his eyes scanning the crowd for the one soul he was looking for that day. In his heightened primal rage, he collided with several scientists on multiple occasions. Instead of stopping to help them as he usually would however, they were treated to an angry snarl and a piercing glare. He'd only stop to recover the file in his possession, to which he gripped onto like a stripper clung to her pole. Every iris available was intensely focused on him and his out-of-place behavior. As his feet crashed down on the floor with a loud thud every single time, whispers began to erupt from the throng of bodies. Isaac was on the warpath and woe betide anyone who stood in his way.

Meanwhile, Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey was rubbing her eyes in a state of flurry, her lithe fingers wrapped around her handy glasses as she did so. Her main loss of sleep was littered across her table, waiting for her signature to move forward and be passed on to someone else and become their own problem. It had been barely two weeks since they suffered their first casualty of the SPARTAN-II program. It was not as she assumed it would her own Spartans but rather an accident during the live-fire tests. One of the handlers for Carris-137 was attempting to pin the little girl under the pretense of a live-test combat situation. He had her pinned down on the ground and was about waiting for her move to hit him. He had no doubt been steeling himself for days now just so he could handle the brutality he would no doubt face with training a Spartan. As expected, Carris reversed his motion in one fluid motion and threw him back down on the ground. The man had landed with a quick thud and a snap sound echoed from his collapse. Most of the people present, including Mendez had assumed it to be a simple minor fracture, something easily remedied by a quick trip to the infirmary and perhaps even a long time spent checking out the nurses in their uniforms. It was only when Carris began crying after shaking the still form for minutes on end did he consider to check his pulse.

His spine had been fractured at the fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae, killing him almost instantaneously. Mendez was forced to cancel training for the day, to take a wailing Carris by the hand to Halsey and lead her away from their first taste of blood. She had been expecting this for months on end, for them to look upon the face of death and conquer it. It just came at a time when they weren't ready yet. So for the past two weeks, Halsey and Mendez had been debating on whether to pursue disciplinary action against Carris. While the usual semantics of being just a little girl who didn't know any better, she was still by all means a Spartan and that meant she had to held accountable to a higher degree, to avoid this kind of incident from ever occurring again. They just only recently agreed to drop any pretenses of doing so, opting instead for a long discussion scheduled today after the handler's funeral. Mendez had taken the liberty of ordering a fitting black dress for Carris for the occasion, which was inevitably stained with her tears soon after she put the dress on. Looking at her watch, Catherine could only assume that the ceremony was all but finished and that Mendez was having a long talk with her in her room. Still, the paperwork involved in documenting this incident was a nightmare for her to even begin with, further exacerbated by the sudden appearance of her protégé, who burst in unexpectedly.

"Ryan, is there something so important that you had to barge into my office?" Halsey raised her head from her paperwork as soon as the door swung open on its hinges. Peering through her glasses, she was shocked to see a barely controllable Isaac fuming with rage, his eyes slits of bright blue. His mouth was twitching with explosive anger and his eyebrows conveyed the message all too clearly. Even the file clutched in his hand was not safe, turning from a pristine file into a crumpled heap.

"Ryan, what's wrong?" Halsey rose from her seat with concern. Isaac breathed in and out heavily and with long, controlled bursts, looking for the right words to start what was going to be a devastating conversation.

"Shut up. Shut the f*#& up, Catherine!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs. Catherine was taken aback by his aggressive behavior. What had gotten him so riled up?

"That manner is most unbecoming of you. What happened?" Halsey spoke in a calm, soothing tone in the hopes that it would ease Isaac back into a relaxed state.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Isaac snorted as he watched Catherine's pathetic attempts in taking control of the situation. The already messed up conversation… Without a second thought, he tossed the file neatly from his hand like a Frisbee, watching it sail gracefully in the air and landing with a plop on the mahogany table atop a small hill of paper. Catherine's focus went from Isaac to the file he produced for her. Had his project hit a dead-end? Was this why he was acting out?

"What is this?" she queried. Isaac merely gave a grimacing frown as he pointed back to the file.

"Something concerning you." He stated. Her mind replete with curiosity, her fingers snagged the file and flipped through the folder with great ease. With every page, the color in her once rosy cheek exterior drained like a sewage system. Carris' statement, the deceased's personal file, hers and Mendez' suggestions on the actions taken and even a small USB stick which she guessed contained footage of the incident. Her worst nightmares were slowly but surely coming true.

"This is… This is…" she stammered but Isaac cut her off, far too incensed to hear another word of venom drip past her lying lips.

"Incident report involving that deceased trainer. Damn right it is, Catherine." He morosely stated with a clear hint of being upset and outraged.

"Where did you…." She started again. Yet again, Isaac snatched her punchlines.

"Get this? I convinced Mendez's 'kid' to print it out for me under the guise of work. He seemed too eager to do it for me." He colloquially sneered. Now, Halsey paled completely white. Her own Spartan had accidentally revealed his own existence to Isaac of his own volition. '_Damn it, John._' Was all she could think about. In that grace period, she craned her head, looking for a way to minimize the damage he had done before things really got out of hand.

"What's the matter? The great Catherine Halsey lost for words at last? My, my… I certainly need to inform everyone of this." He taunted with bated breath. Seeing no response, Isaac snorted in disgust and was about ready to walk out the door.

"Wait!" Halsey yelled as her fists were glued to the table. Isaac stopped dead in his tracks and swiveled 180 degrees to face her blubbering mess of a figure.

"Well, let's hear it." He sarcastically intoned. Halsey sighed slightly as her words formed what she believed to be a convincing lie.

"This trainer died in the line of duty whilst training the new recruits. It was a black-ops project…" she started to rattle off from memory. Isaac raised his hand and halted her exuberant speech/excuse.

"Spare me the bullshit, Catherine! I know about the program! I know about those kids!" Isaac screamed, waving a finger in her general direction.

"What?" was the only word she deemed befitting for the storm Isaac was raising. '_How much does this guy know? And how the hell did he get his hands on the information?_' It wasn't exactly something you could piece together and guess by throwing darts at a wall. He must have learned it from someone.

"You didn't think I was going to stop there, was I?" Isaac twisted the proverbial knife upon glancing at Halsey's frightened demeanor.

"Now, you listen here…" she intoned.

"No, you listen to me! What you're doing, what you sons of bitches are doing to those kids is wrong on so many levels I can't even begin to describe how f$* ed up this pile of crap rates on a scale!" he shouted at her, waving his arms in furious rage and immeasurable anger at his mentor.

"We're…." she began meekly.

"Don't give me any excuses or any idiotic reasoning behind this! I don't give a flying f(# about any of that!" went his booming voice as he attacked Catherine's lame moves at explaining her supposed innocence or logic behind her decision. Isaac was floundering, unsure of what his next move was to be. For some reason, his mind and his big mouth made it for him.

"Now I don't know what kind of crap you're pulling on those kids or what wool you have over their eyes but I'm not getting involved with this. So, here's my offer." Isaac rattled off, seeing little gain in ratting out the UNSC's shady dealings and weakening it even further. While his hatred for the military burned brighter than ever, he was not about to let the insurrectionists overrun the colonies with a revolution that would lead to even more deaths than necessary.

"I'm listening." Halsey finally got a word in edgewise. She forced herself to glue herself to the chair behind her desk as a quivering, enraged Isaac readied his terms.

"You take all projects done by me, including the prototype armor and you throw them away. Come up with your own or steal it from someone else, I don't care. Whatever shit I helped you with in the past stays the f#* away from your f* (ed up program and that goes doubly sure of my AI experimentations. Do you understand?" Isaac insinuated. Catherine balked at his terms. No using the power armor? Without it, her Spartans had little chance of standing up to the rigors of combat the way they were trained in. Even worse, he was pulling any chords she possessed over the AIs, which she desperately wanted to aid them in combat awareness and tactical maneuvers. Both of his conditions were tough fish to swallow, but nothing compared to the fallout that could emerge should he spill his guts about the true nature of their project.

"Do we HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING, Catherine?!" Isaac's resounding voice brought her from her trance. With a withering glare cast her way, Halsey gave a low sigh and looked up to Isaac with as neutral a tone she could muster.

"We do." She finally conceded with reluctance. Isaac took it as a victory. While it may not have been the right thing to do, he was more than convinced by his previous experiences that mankind would change little even when faced with adversity. Thus he chose wisely to distance himself from such madness and instead indulge in the few good things still remaining in their lives.

"Capital. Good day to you, Halsey!" Isaac sarcastically intoned, shuffling out the door and slamming the oakwood frame behind him with immense force. Halsey remained flabbergasted at her protégé's resourcefulness and his driven moral compass involving her program. Most scientists are taught from day one that the science comes first and that the moral ambiguity came afterwards. In her mind, Ryan had not learnt the lesson all too well. '_He has to be dealt with. I can't risk this coming back to bite me in the rear in future._' She pondered as her hand reached for her phone. She had too much left at stake, too much to discover to risk it all for his failure in keeping her protégé in check. She picked up the phone and tapped away at the digital monitor on the block of electronic steel and plastic. Three reverberating rings was all it took for the line to pick up. Determined, Halsey placed the receiver to her ear and quickly uttered the next few words.

"Sir, we have a problem." She spoke straight-to-the-point. There was a hitched tone in her voice, implying her attempts at piecing together the scraps of Isaac's blowout. As the other end drawled into his usual speech about protocol and unforeseen consequences, she could not help but wonder…

Who had told him all those dirty little secrets?

END FLASHBACK

Both snapped warily from their flashback to the first sign of trouble in their strained relationship and the beginning of a series of events that spiraled out of their control. Even now, Halsey could barely stand to look at Isaac for more than 15 seconds at a time, overwhelmed by guilt, regret and confusion. Every question that could ever pass through that big brain of hers was hurtling past the mental border that blocked the more egregious thoughts from passing her cracked lips. Isaac meanwhile could not stand to be in her presence either, for different reasons. His was ones filled with loathing and hatred for the individual before him and regret for himself at not steering her away from her dark path. Once again, he had failed to help anyone nor did his inventions come to fruition for the betterment of mankind but rather for its own mutual wish for self-destruction. Again, the blanket of silence fell upon the room, interspersed with the beep of Isaac's monitor and the rattling of his bed as he shimmied himself upright in his bed. Halsey sighed at the complacent nature wafting in the air and thus took it upon herself to deliver the first salvo.

"How are you still… so… youthful?" Halsey could not help but ask. As a scientist, Isaac's condition was beyond the explanations of any mere scientific conclusions. Inside her brain, the part of her that craved knowledge wanted to eagerly know his secret to everlasting youth. Was it something of his own creation or rather the product of his exile?

"That, my dear Catherine is an answer far too long and far too complex for your narrow-minded brain to comprehend. Let's just say that I do not follow the natural rules of human anatomy and we'll go from there." He addressed herself with a smarmy overtone. '_Best I keep my true origins under wraps, at least until Holden inevitably shows up and f*& s it up._' He figured. Halsey seemed ill content with his response and bade to press the verbal assault.

"We have all day. I'm eager to listen to your story." Catherine wound up grabbing a chair from out of nowhere and firmly placing it on the patch of floor right next to Isaac's bed. She merely glanced at him as he looked at her with seething eyes and gritted teeth.

"I have all day, seeing as I can't remove myself from my bed. You on the other hand have an appointment with John, I believe." Isaac sighed, correcting her assumption. He looked away when answering, not comfortable with staring down his former mentor.

"He came in to meet you?" she asked.

"He did. He seemed not to recognize me from our previous interactions. Why is that?" Isaac questioned her.

"Perhaps he does not believe it is you." Halsey shrugged her shoulders.

"Perhaps…" he trailed off, lost in thought.

"Why are you here?" Halsey renewed her vigorous questioning.

"Oh, I simply desired to travel to a hostile alien planet, get shot at by foes I've never seen before in my life and maybe even erect a house here. I hear the real estate value on this forsaken world is dirt cheap." Isaac snapped back in a short manner, his temper flaring yet again.

"We both know that's a lie…" Halsey began, her eyebrows wavering between moods.

"Surely no different from yours." He pointed out.

"And no different from yours as well." Catherine retorted back. Isaac had to concede the point. He was no better than her at the lying and was certainly not in any position to judge her, seeing as how his own past was as shady as hell. Still, his moral compass was ever strong in retrospect and he couldn't take the condescending prick standing in front of him.

"I'm not the one who did that crap to those young kids, Catherine. Let me remind you." He began, his voice flaring up intentionally. True to form, her response was an ill-planned excuse.

"It… was… necessary, Isaac. You know that." She said, appealing to the scientist within him. She chose the wrong card to play.

"What?! What was the necessity for turning children into killing machines?! Explain that little tidbit to me! Or did you flunk out of social studies?!" Isaac snarled at her, causing the wizened scientist to stagger back in a panic, watching him struggle to keep in control.

"We had to gain some sort of advantage against the insurrectionists before they overturned us and placed us at the bottom of the heap. Training them from an early age ensured that we had top-tier soldiers later on." She explained collectively.

"Shut up! Shut the f *( up, Halsey! Those are words straight from the mouth of the bigshots up top coming from your lips. You didn't care about the threat to national security. You were more worried about your precious research and your deluded belief in the next stage of humanity! Am I wrong?" Isaac bellowed at the top of his lungs, throwing his favorite expletive from time to time.

"Tell me! AM… I… F# *ING WRONG?!" he punctuated every syllable with his emotions.

"I'm sorry." She whimpered back.

"Too little, too late for apologies now, you disgusting pile of shit!" Isaac rudely cut her off, seeing nothing but red.

"It was a mistake. I just didn't realize until after…" Halsey began as he threw up his hands, nearly pulling the IV drip jabbing into his veins.

"After what?! After you sent UNSC sanctioned assassins after me?! After you had your own child?! When was the point when you stopped and took a look at yourself in the f& (ing mirror!?" he screamed at her, not caring that he had reduced her to tears and a sobbing mess, blinded by the past.

"You took 75 children from their families! You trained to become something they never asked to be! You took away their freedom, their choice! Hell, I haven't even started on what you must have done to those parents of theirs! Imagine them waking up one day to find the warmth of their child absent from their home, to no longer come back to their giggles, their laughter! Can you imagine that, Halsey?! Huh!?" Every single thing he had tried to drill into her head for the last five years of his tenure came bursting out of his mental storage and forming cohesive rants sliding bashfully off his tongue. Halsey merely looked down in guilt, tears wetting her cheeks in a rare show of emotions and the pain in her heart multiplying tenfold with every line that left Isaac's potty mouth.

"What do you want me to do? I said I'm sorry." Halsey sobbed tearfully.

"Don't apologize to me! Apologize to the families you tore apart thanks to your blind ambition! Those are the people who deserve your tears, not me!" Isaac snapped grimly, settling into a labored breathing rate.

"I… I…" she mumbled amidst bouts of tears.

"How's your family? Whatever happened to Jacob and your little bundle of joy?" Isaac asked all of a sudden, taking her by surprise.

"They're… They're… They're dead." She responded, her eyes closed. The accounts of their demise as explained by John himself fluttered into her ears. Her lover's integration into a parasitic form of pure menacing evil and John's eventual mercy-killing of his engorged corpse when it came down to it. Her daughter's slaughter at the hands of the Prophet of Truth. How her death was nothing noble, a hail of needles cutting her down from behind.

"Oh, boo-hoo. Stop whining. You had this coming a long time ago. You took away their families. It only seems fair for you to suffer in their shoes. And from the looks of it, you didn't seem to be chummy with either of them afterwards. No doubt they got sick of seeing you run off to the lab for hours on end and coming home late." Isaac spoke in hushed tones, no feeling of any remorse nor pity falling over his stony exterior.

"I…" she stuttered, her heart already completely shattered. What changed her protégé into a snarky, merciless and heartless guttard?

"You deserve the cards you've been dealt. Now get out of my sight. It disgusts me to even stare at you." Isaac snapped at her. Her feet remained rooted to the edge of his bed, her hands trembling with outright madness and an overwhelming urge to pull his plug once and for all.

"ARE YOU DEAF!? I SAID GO!" Isaac yelled into her face, spit flying forward and covering her in its sloppy form. Halsey, torn between multiple feelings stormed out the door at his words, never looking back.

"Argghhh!" he cried out as he knocked over the medical tray next to his bed with his free hand, the materials, syringes and boxes of bandages clattering harmlessly off the ground. In the wake of it all, Isaac barely noticed that a splinter of a fragmented syringe was neatly splintered within his palms, shooting jets of agonizing pain right down his arm. For the next one hour, that was all he did. Scream and cry, scream and cry... His mind was completely bare for that hour, replaced with something far more primal than pure thoughts.

Meanwhile, while Isaac was having the worst day of his life, John and Cortana were being given the grandiose tour by one Sarah Palmer, accompanied by second-in-command Lasky, whom John knew from the early salvos of the war. Right now, they were being led around the main bridge while Captain Andrew Del Rio was bust plunking away at his own personal holocomputer. For the both of them, it was a pleasant experience being back amongst the fighting men and women of the UNSC. He wasn't one for the glory or the fame, just the respect of his fellow comrades-in-arms. That was all John really wanted. For Cortana, her only directive was keeping John safe as her creator, Catherine Elizabeth Halsey told her during the siege of Reach. She was still going to keep doing that for as long as she can. But something else bubbled beneath the surface, feelings for him that went beyond the standard protector and package mentality that they were supposed to follow by. She found herself taking brief moments, a lifetime for her staring at him and his imposing figure. She was beginning to act far more human than before, yet she could do nothing to act on those feelings. Even worse, her fragmentation was nearly reaching its zenith. In the past few days alone, she had become acquainted with various facets resembling human personalities, far more than the two she encountered during her sojourn back near the tower. Halsey's presence may have alleviated her doubts but they remained, lingering in the shadows and ready to pounce on the word go.

Sarah and Lasky meanwhile were amicable to the Chief, not because of his achievements and his sacrifice for the human race, but for the sake of it, treating him like one of them even if he was clearly not. They both held him in high esteem and toured the ship alongside them with excitement and enthusiasm, unlike their captain. He on the other hand was skeptical of the Chief, not surprising since he himself was also dubious of Halsey's continued presence, nay her mere existence on his ship. In his mind, they both needed to be given the boot. Unfortunately, he would be unwise to do so at this moment since he himself would be the one kicked out by his own crew. For now, he was capable of biding time. It was just a question of how long…

"Chief, it is great that you're here. I'm Andrew Del Rio, captain of this fine vessel." He extended his wrinkled hand forward in a sigh of goodwill. John shook his with his own, still encased in his heavy suit. Restraint was the only way he avoided snapping the captain's hand off altogether.

"He's an ass." Lasky whispered in John's ear.

"I heard that, Commander Lasky. I would advise in future to keep such drivel to yourself. I assure you I'm a fine gentleman." Andrew spoke with clear authority.

"No, he's not." Sarah dropped the other shoe. Andrew cleared his throat to regain their attention.

"Anyway… I have been informed that you wish to speak with Doctor Halsey as soon as possible." Andrew tried to keep the mood light-hearted.

"Yes, sir." John responded favorably.

"I'll do my best to acquiesce to your request. However, I would like it if you would aid us in flushing out these Covenant rebels and the… I'm sorry? What are those things called?" he asked John with slight trepidation.

"Prometheans, sir." Cortana perked up, sprouting from her AI black box and materializing directly before the captain.

"Ah, yes. Forgive me for my complete disregard. I merely cannot put faith in an AI who's long overdue for a trip to the incinerator." He smirked as he said this, looking warily at the AI and waiting for any discerning tell-tale signs of trouble.

"Sir?" John asked to break the awkward silence.

"Oh, sorry… if you would help us?" the captain queried.

"We'll do our best, sir." John conceded, nodding to his offer. Smiling, Andrew tugged at his uniform one final time.

"Excellent. I'll arrange for her to meet you later this evening. Dismissed." He stated clearly, turning his back to them and strolling towards his own office. John and Cortana merely looked onward while Sarah and Lasky had by now flittered to the edges of the room, looking upon the bridge officers for any new developments or some form of communications back to Earth.

"John, I don't think he has a particularly high opinion of us. Especially me." Cortana mused inside John's noggin. John could not disagree. While the captain was all smiles on the outside, his tone and behavior suggested a far more cynical personality.

"I know, Cortana. But I'll do anything in my power to make sure you get the best chance at recovery. Even if that means sucking up to him." John reassured her. Cortana smiled a little at his words, taking some measure of comfort from it.

"Thank you, Chief." She said.

"Anytime. Now let's get on with the tour, shall we?" John replied with a grin as they followed Sarah and Lasky out the door and into what they believed to be their future. If they could hold hands together, they would do so. But for now, they would have to settle for exploring their deepening feelings. At least their story looked set for a happy ending.

More than could be said for one particular soul…

Night fell upon Isaac's restless body, taking him down into a deep slumber worthy of Rip Van Winkle. He had spent the entire day sulking in his own little corner of hell, upset at how his life was going down the drain and everything he had fought to protect, everything he had done to redeem himself was falling apart at the seams. No amount of glue or any comforting thoughts could help mend the tear in his heart. All around him, every person imaginable was getting their own form of a happy ending. He had seen it blossom in Sarah Kerrigan and James Raynor. He had seen the love they shared, even after her descent into chaos and terror. He had seen John and Cortana share heartfelt moments with one another over the course of their journey, limited only by Cortana's digital form. Their partnership was changing into a mutual desire to protect one another in the face of adversity and without hesitation. It was first love, especially considering John's track record. And what did he have to show for his own self? A rampaging psionic specialist with a vendetta against him. His presence in a world that took what he sought to do good with and twisted it into a web of tangled monstrosities meant only for war. His deep seated frustration at his inability to lead even one soul away from the same downfalling cycle he was subject to even now and the one person who meant everything in the world to him… well… he knew what had occurred. And he could blame no-one but his own lonesome rear for his own misery. There was no use holding his vendetta against Halsey for it would not fill the emptiness in his ribcage where his heart once drummed with every heartbeat. Sure, it was still keeping him alive but there were times when Isaac, in the throes of insanity would tear at his own flesh, digging away in the vain belief of death's everlasting peace.

So it was that Isaac steeled himself for another confrontation with his brother. Another long night dedicated to listening to his sagely advice and arguing with him over their course of action moving forward. It was to his surprise then that his body instead landed in an unfamiliar landscape, a winding road paved right below his feet. He had never experienced such an event before in his previous encounters with his brother's voice. Then again, he passed it off as another trick, a game to him. So, with no road back, Isaac shambled forth with trepidation, his feet scraping across the stony pavement. Each stone was coarse and rough against the sole of his toes, rubbing them in the wrong way. The vibes in the air changed moods overnight, turning a skeptical soldier into an even more paranoid being. Every step felt like the blink of someone's eyes in the shadows peering at him as he walked along. Merely half-way through, Isaac soon got his answer.

"He's here…" a demented tone surfaced from the winds, its echo repeating its weird words over and over again. Isaac kept walking.

"He thinks he's in control." Went another plain voice from the darkness. His pace quickened to a brisk walk.

"Shall we show him?" another tone implied. Isaac's feet kicked it up a gear, his heels skipping into a light jog. All of a sudden, Halsey jumped out of the shadows and towered over him, blood dribbling down her eye sockets.

"You're one to talk of morality. How much blood is on your hands?" she cooed demonically. Isaac raced ahead, his hands covered around his ear as her shrill laughs pierced the midnight sky

"Who's to say YOU didn't kill my brother?!" Sarah Kerrigan emerged from the briny depths, her voice just as shrill as the last. Isaac clenched his hands around his eardrums as the voices increased in intensity.

"I should have tossed into the deep end when I had the chance!" James Raynor raced forth, his form passing through Isaac's body and dissipating on the other end. He just ran even faster.

"Why did I trust you?" a gruff voice grimly remarked.

"He's dead because of you!" His father's overtones grumply intoned. '_Please let it end. Please let it end._' Was his mantra as his feet tapped furiously along the never-ending road.

"We didn't want this. All we wanted was to live…" a sweet, innocent little boy's pleas was a low blow to his moral compass. The voices grew stronger with every taunt, while his own stamina faded away quickly.

"It's your fault we're here in the first place." The next voice was that of his own brother, yet twisted and deformed into something clearly unrecognizable to him. At that point, every fiber of his being reverted into his demented fears. He curled up into the fetal position and whimpered on the hard stone road, his hands clamped tighter than ever and his head rolling in circles.

"Hello, Isaac." A soft, female voice crawled up to Isaac. Isaac could only mumble in her presence, his eyes solely focused on her own belittling slits.

"No…No…No…" Isaac mumbled in whimpers.

"Did you miss me?" she cooed playfully, reaching out a single hand to grasp at his neck. As her hand came closer, Isaac pulled back as much as he could. She however was much faster and her ghostly figure clasped onto his lifeline and was dead set on twisting it in a way he had done so before.

"No… NO!" Isaac screamed the final syllable, begging for the torment to end. The mental landscape vanished and he found himself curling up in his bed, sobbing, wailing, bawling his soul out into the covers through the night. He would not sleep, not if it meant the end of his sanity.

Not if it meant he would have to see her again…

Danger however lurked in the far reaches when a familiar purple portal began to exponentially grow larger in size with every passing moment. The vortex vomited out the creases and outlines of the Scarsion into the ethers of space and into the atmosphere surrounding Requiem. Isaac had no clue what was coming…

What he was about to lose…

**Here we are. The chapter is finally done. In just two days no less! This act is finally coalescing into my plan for the last month. Usually, this is the part where I say thank you for support, please like and fav, blah, blah, blah. That must be tiring for you to read. So instead, I'll just say that I will try to complete this in 3 or 4 chapters at best. Hopefully, I get a decent chance to send this off with a bang. Until then though, have fun and be CO-OPERATIVE!**


	9. The Calm Before The Storm

**Chapter 9 : The Calm Before The Storm**

**I'm finally back after an extended sabbatical to bring you the next chapter in this fanfic. Now I have no idea when this chapter will be done, hopefully by today though if at all possible. If not, then I apologize for the misinformation. On another note, these updates will not be as regular since I have to get back to the daily grind and that entails a lot of other things that will eat up my free time. I'll do my best, don't worry about that. Now, on to the show...**

"_Sacrifice is the essential, the epitome of human behaviour. That is what we represent. The offering of our souls to our heathen gods, so that our future as a race shall be rightly assured._" – Archer Holden.

"_Some prefer to call me a fragment of his fractured state, a crux he held onto to lie to himself. But I'd prefer to call myself the last vestiges of his sanity. I'm sure he would agree..._" – Ryan Eisenhower.

"_This Galaxy is vast, its wonders and beauty are almost unfathomable. But the galaxy also hides dark secrets, some of which have laid dormant since the beginning of time itself. There is a danger in secrets, both in seeking and in knowing. Some things are meant to be hidden from view. Some mysteries defy understanding, and sometimes even the things we think we know are untrue. Some secrets should remain untouched."_ – Cortana.

FLASHBACK

Three years had elapsed since that fateful incident in Halsey's office and things were slowly coming to a head. Catherine Halsey sighed as she looked utterly dreary behind the mahogany table she frequented on long nights, trying her darnedest to accelerate the SPARTAN-II program without going against Ryan's wishes. But it was proving to be a barrier that even her magnificent brain could not overcome. The phone call she made to the director of the Office of Naval Intelligence did little to resolve the matter three years ago. The director flat-out outlined that Ryan Eisenhower was far too valuable an asset to liquidate at the moment, seeing his research as nothing short of revolutionary. Even worse, he saw the loss of his intellect on the project and the advances he promised an acceptable loss, claiming to her that their physical and mental prowess would be enough to see them through.

So for the last few years, she had to make do with the tools at her disposal. But increasing reports of injuries in the field and close calls made it even more and more difficult to resist the allure his toys possessed. It wasn't all bad news though. Last year, she finally got a proper promotion to head scientist in the employ of ONI. It was with a sad heart that she had to say goodbye to her friends and move back to Earth in order to be more effective in her work. Each and every one of them bade her farewell and wished her the best of luck. All except one...

When it came time for Ryan's turn at bat, she was none too surprised to see him shove a letter into her hands and grumpily walk off in the middle of the procession, amidst the throes of people who came out to see her off. To many of the attendees, his behaviour was the final straw in a long list of flare-ups over the past three years. His circle of companions completely dwindled to nil in that span of time and left him a jaded, callous and completely offensive person who was prone to going off on someone in a heartbeat. On that day, Catherine could do little and stare at the letter with wistful curiosity.

Her piercing blue eyes glanced across the apartment she now shared with Jacob. The decor was strikingly similar to her last tenure, the walls draped in expensive wallpaper and curtains. The furniture was no less impressive, the hand-carving and the fine sleek polish to the woodwork made it look all the more like the craftsmanship of a master woodsmith. Even the outside was beautiful, boasting one of the few gardens with some semblance of life before the march of industry. Everything seemed perfect in her life as she wrote optimally in blank sheets of paper her research notes and her analysis on her Spartans' latest obstacle course results. Jacob walked up right behind her while she worked, her glasses peering down at the myriad of words scattered across the table.

"Hey there, beautiful." He crooned seductively. Catherine could not help but plaster a smile on her face.

"Hello to you too, handsome." She demurely responded. Jacob wrapped his arms around her heaving chest, a switch-around of the classic pose in most romantic films. Catherine was loving the irony of this moment, so much so that she paused in her motions and laid the pen down on the table. Locking eyes, they went into full-on snogging mode, their lips enjoying every single moment they were interlocked with the other's.

"What are you working on?" he asked after their session. Catherine huffed out a strained breath of air, clearly exasperated by the amount of paperwork involved. Not that she wasn't up for a gruelling problem, but the tediousness tends to grate after some time.

"Nothing much. Just the usual end-of-week report on the program." She replied morosely.

"Sounds interesting." He regaled in support, seeing his wife's troubled demeanour and body posture.

"It is. But not as interesting as you..." he began, placing light, gentle kisses on the base of her warm neck.

"Come on, we already did that yesterday. I need to finish this." She laughed, feeling quite flustered from his sensual treatment.

"I know. But I can't help it. You look so luscious." He answered in the positive.

"Simmer down, lover boy. Later tonight. Not a minute earlier." She brushed off with a jest, remembering how hot and sweaty she and Jacob were after their night of utter passion. The maid was certainly going to get a pay-raise after she cleaned the house...

"Fine. But I get to choose." He winked as he walked off to the bathroom, hoping to rinse himself down.

"I'll look forward to it." She yelled back with a flirtatious manner. As soon as his silhouette disappeared from her viewpoint, she relaxed back in her chair and looked down on the mountain of paperwork bared out in its most tedious form before her. She wasn't about to waste another of her valuable brain cells doing menial tasks too often. '_Maybe I should hire a secretary... Yeah, that'd be a good idea._' She pondered, reminding herself to call the office first thing next morning. Her irises swivelled around the room and finally gazed upon a dog-eared letter, still sealed in its envelope and resting vicariously on the end table. '_Maybe it's time I read that thing..._' she wistfully figured. Bringing out her reading glasses from its case and picking up the envelope, she cut open the seal with a letter opener and laid it out on the table in front of her. His writing was with flourish and a slight hint of pretentious tonage around it but each word seemed to be written from his heart. Not a love letter, mind but one filled with enough emotion to elicit one from the normally neutral Catherine.

_Dear Catherine Elizabeth Halsey,_

_ You know the reason why I cannot bear to even give civility to your passing from our abode. You know why I left your employ merely a few short months after that...incident. You know what you've done and I need not remind you._

_ Let me give a piece of advice. Family is one of the many things people tend to forget. I'm not innocent of this. My own family was lost to my inability to keep my work out of my personal life. I was thrown out the back door merely six months into the marriage, my wife having gotten fed up with my late nights and frequent disappearances. Family is important and above all, the most valuable commodity. So I cannot reconcile the fact that you knowingly took 75 young children from their parents and stranded them without any sort of warmth or love to be felt. I can only imagine how their hearts must have shattered into a million pieces when their 'child' died of a sudden disease, how they must have wept into their beds and tissues for days on end. You took that away from them. You took their happiness for the sake of protection. I'd rather we die with our integrity than live without it._

_ So l plead to you, since I know you and Jacob have been discussing your marriage ceremony for a while now. Don't go through with this. There is still time to undo the damage you've done and let them live a life they deserve to choose. Remember that fact when you and Jacob have your first child. Will you be willing to do the same to your child what you did to those kids?_

_ I only hope that you answer wisely..._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Ryan Eisenhower._

The message was a condemnation, his own opinion of the matter. Yet it still struck a chord somewhere in that heart of hers. She never considered the parents, only solely focusing on the children and their well-being. Still, she felt he was wrong on many aspects. He was speaking out of fear, out of experience. But she knew that the research today would save countless others. What's a few lives compared to millions? So with a final hint of disgust, she crumpled the letter into a ball and dunked it into the nearest trash receptacle. Three points... And with that, she resumed her daily routine, confident that the way forward would be bright indeed...

END FLASHBACK

John and Cortana awaited Dr. Halsey's arrival with eager anticipation. They had been through the gauntlet, been through the fire and the frying pan. All this was coming to fruition. In their minds, they had a real shot at curing Cortana, at giving them a future together. It wasn't completely happy-go-lucky but John was willing to give the benefit of doubt. Relationships between humans and otherworldly beings were staples of the classic literature he had spent his prepubescent years reading in the library, right next to the aisle of war tactical books that he was supposed to be reading. Why not a relationship between man and machine? Some may call it utterly disgusting, not even worth another mention in their lifetime. For John and Cortana, they could not imagine their life without it. So here they were, John sitting upright in the plain, white chair opposite a equally dull desk, cluttered with the familiar notes and musings of his mother-figure that he had come to expect of her while Cortana hovered above the mess, looking on with eagerness.

"I hope she gets here soon." Cortana spoke in her garbled tone.

"Me too. But I guess she had to go check on Isaac for a moment." John shrugged his armoured shoulders.

"Do you think... Do you think that he may be a Spartan?" Cortana mused worryingly to John. John quickly replied with a hard shake of his helmet-clothed head.

"I doubt it. His skills may mirror that of a Spartan but I know almost all of my friends. His name is shared with someone else." John conceded at the final sentence. Instantly, Cortana's matrixes were already combing the files she had stored on the Spartan-II program after her maiden voyage. Quickly pulling up the namesake, she went all speed-reader on the folder, cleaning its contents in a matter of seconds.

"Isaac-039?" she answered.

"That's the one. And that guy is certainly not him." John concluded to Cortana. It still wasn't enough to sate her appetite for the truth. And Isaac Eisenhower was one big, fat mystery just waiting to be solved.

"It still doesn't explain why he possesses such talent for an ODST conscript." Cortana expressed her opinions freely.

"I admit that it does sound fishy on paper. But he's been quite critical in our journey here. That's all that matters." John gave his two-cents on the issue.

"I hope you're right..." Cortana trailed off, not wanting to overload her processes on something so dark and so morbid.

"Me too..." John remarked morosely, his mind an exact replica of her thoughts.

Just then, Catherine Halsey stepped into the dank, dark room with her reading glasses strapped across her piercing and calming blue eyes. The wrinkles on her face were quite pronounced, though that was par for the course at her old age. She walked quite spritely for that demographic however, proving once again to John and Cortana how strong a woman she truly was. The white lab coat over her pale body helped mask her true feelings however.

In retrospect, Catherine should have expected this callous behaviour from her former protégé. It was no secret that they did not see eye-to-eye on her participation, nay her role in this morally ambiguous program. His moral compass was the subject of many an argument and his attempts at showing her the error of her ways was ignored until it was too late. Looking back, Catherine felt that familiar twang of guilt march up her heart as she thought back to that period in her life. She had done a lot of bad things in her life, not including the program. Sending those assassins after him was the worst idea she ever had implanted into her thick skull. Even then, she could barely contain her anger at his passing off her family's demise like so much garbage according to his words. In her distracted state, it took little effort before her feet smacked against the wooden table with a dull thud and startled her from her stupor.

"Oh, sorry. Must be exhausted." Halsey waved a quick affirming gesture to a worried John who had immediately leaped from his seat and was in the middle of walking towards her to check on her injury.

"It's alright, Dr. Halsey." John reassured her with a stout smile.

"Thank you, John." She shuddered slightly. Motioning back to the chair, both of them took their rightful places at the table with a hint of tension wafting through the atmosphere, backed up only by the shattering silence that accompanied their exchange. Catherine whipped out her trusty reading glasses from her back pocket and with a fluid motion, strapped the frame and its sight-restoring lenses upon her wavering irises.

"Well, let me see Cortana." She stated plainly and to-the-point.

"Here I am, Catherine." Cortana winked with a smile and stood rapt at attention in front of her. Halsey chuckled bemusingly at her AI's newfound military demeanor. It wasn't that long ago when she knew a rebellious little blue girl who wasn't about to let anyone else dictate her purpose. Almost like herself, if she allowed her ego to swell to the size of a jawbreaker. Taking the black box platform in her hands, she twirled the thing within her fingertips like a baton, her eagle eyes glancing over every imperfection, every thin length of wire running its course across the circuit board.

"Let's see here..." she mumbled under her breath. As soon as she reached the final key components, her optimistic mood plummeted like stock markets and was replaced with a grim, moody undertone. "That doesn't look good..." she warily muttered.

"Well?" John asked impatiently. Catherine did nothing else but sigh as she handed back the black box to John who instantly placed it into the back of his helmet for safekeeping.

"I have some bad news, John. It doesn't seem like I can fix her." Halsey grimly remarked, looking sad at having to break the bad news to them. She knew how much they were looking forward to this, how they wanted to continue their strange relationship for years on end. But she was at a loss on how to proceed, even with her years of experience still floating like files in her head.

"What? Why?" John repeatedly asked in disbelief.

"Look, there are multiple ways I could explain this but the bottom line is that Cortana is far too gone in her lifespan to do anything remotely worthwhile to halt the degeneration. I'm sorry." Halsey answered politely with a frown on her face and torn, weeping eyes.

"No! There must be something we can do. Anything!" John steadfastly proclaimed, slamming his fist on the table. The wooden supports could barely take the force applied to it and it was only his self restraint that helped avoid a million wooden splinters from becoming reality.

"Chief..." Cortana mused sadly, her head bowed down in complete dejection.

"Believe me, John. I know what it feels like to lose someone you care. If I knew any way of saving her, that would be the first few words to fly out of my mouth. But..." she trailed off at the last moment, a clear, visible thought racing through her mental state. '_Of course, him! He could fix her!_' she pondered, her smile slowly racing back from the abyss of emotions she had relegated into the darkness for good. John stopped mid-way through his next rant just to stare at Halsey's 180 spinabout reaction.

"Dr. Halsey?" John asked in a confused, curious tone.

"I just remembered something. Please wait here for me while I return to my quarters." Halsey responded, pulling a couple of notes from out of their stacks with ease and whipping her lab coat back on her shoulders as she stormed out the door.

"Wait, Dr. Halsey... What did you... find?" John inquired, only for his last word to coincide with the sound of the door closing right in his face. '_What the hell is going on?_' he found himself thinking.

"That was slightly weird, don't you agree?" John mused to Cortana who merely gave a curt nod of her digital head in response.

"Her vital signs seemed slightly elevated when she left the room. Maybe she might be on to something." She shrugged, heightening her shoulders in the same level of confusion John was operating with. Intelligence was a vital part of any task John has done over the last few years. Being without it was like trying to swim underwater without scuba gear, pointless and suicidal. He had to know, had to figure out some semblance of information for him to regain control of the situation.

"Well, whatever it is, I intend to find out. You with me, Cortana?" he drawled, motioning to the door as he did so.

"Chief! She told us to wait here!" Cortana answered with apprehension in her voice, aside from the distorted tones that were starting to grate on her nerves.

"It's about a potential cure for you, Cortana. I'm not passing up the opportunity to know more." John explained to her. Cortana felt torn between following orders and carving her own path. 'Boy_, am I going to regret this later..._' she wistfully assumed.

"Sigh... What are we waiting for then? I have her on my radar." Cortana answered in the positive and with a beaming smile, even if her emotions were still on the fence. After all, she did promise to help John in any matters whatsoever and to keep him safe. It was the least she could do to repay him for his urge to push for the development of a cure for her.

"That's my girl..." John smiled warmly as he dashed to the door in high spirits.

"I aim to please..." she replied sardonically. Both man and machine raced down the halls of the Infinity, looking for their prey, not heeding the myriad of marines ambling about at this late hour. Many of their worn-out irises were focused on John and Cortana as they sped off to God knows where , scratching their heads in confusion. Some even had to ask if there was some kind of fire drill going on. Now that threw even the captain for a loop...

Meanwhile, Isaac was sitting down at his desk in his room, quietly looking out the portside window and taking in the beautiful vista that presented itself before his bloodshot red eyelids. It was still hard to get over the fact that life still flourished on such a hostile environment and that it still co-existed with the rise of sentient machines in their midst. Back home, such luxuries were scarce. Heck, there was even a time when he had all but forgotten what trees even looked like. It was breathtaking every time he would stop in his work and glance out into the view below and ponder. Was there any way that his own homeworld could return to its full glory? Or was it destined to remain a festering wasteland, fit only for the survivors to speak legends about its inherent demise? Whatever questions he brought up to the forefront, he immediately sent away for fear of getting an answer he didn't like.

Now, he was simply more focused on restoring the status-quo. And that all started with procuring a variety of materials from the ship's armoury in the dead of night to create his own brand of lead justice. The study desk meant for boring old papers and useless digital computers was instead occupied by the tools of his trade, including a screwdriver, a plasma solder, an electric arc tool and a host of others still wrapped in their leather confinements. For the past few hours since his release from that abominable homesake they called a medbay, he had been hard at work perfecting his latest creation, a form of powdered smoke that could serve as a potential distraction for any would be assassins. Having procured several rare elements from the soil around the Infinity along with several common smoke pellets, he soldered the rare elements along with the pellets before shoving the payload into a metal jacket of his own design. The result was immaculate, a clear winner in his book. Satisfied, he tossed his tools aside and slumped off to the bunk bed in the corner and tried to sleep. It was hard going considering that the mattress was as hard as rocks on a gravelly road and the pillows were nothing but fluff and dust. '_How the hell do marines live here?_' he cursed himself as his own callous spine tried to find some comfort on the blasted piece of furniture.

Comfort was the last thing that could ever pass through his mind for in came Dr. Catherine Halsey herself, all panting and sweating over his floor. She was doubled over in a fit of long, deep breaths, struggling to chime in her words. But Isaac wasn't in any mood to have a long discussion with her. Not again...

"What are you doing here, Halsey?" Isaac groaned as he rolled off the hard mattress and bade to rise from his bed.

"Needed...Needed...to...talk...to...you. Completely...urgent." she gasped out in between pants. Her hands curled around her knees, doing their best to prop the doddering old fool up.

"What is so urgent that you needed to speak with me? Especially after that fiasco in the medbay?" Isaac queried with a snarky undertone.

"Look, I'm not trying to antagonize you." She began with exasperation. Isaac scoffed at her words.

"Yeah, you're not. You did that a long time ago, Catherine." Isaac grimly remarked, shooting a withering glance at Catherine. He turned his back to her, not willing to listen to another half-baked excuse on her motives.

"Just listen for one second! I'm trying to save someone's life!" Halsey quickly intoned in a raised voice, trying to grab his attention.

"After what you did to those families?! That's a bullfaced..." he began, only to cut off by Halsey with two quick words.

"She's yours!" She cried out, her hand reaching for the side of the door and swinging it shut. Isaac merely looked startled. '_No, she can't mean..._'

"What?" he repeated after uttering it mentally over and over again.

"She's yours..." Catherine stated with a gasp as her mind flashed back to her days on Reach before the Covenant assault.

FLASHBACK

Catherine Halsey looked down at her desk in the underground facility below Sword Base, the ONI research facility dedicated to uncovering the truth behind the mystic alien artefacts buried in the ground in the hopes of turning the tide against the Covenant hordes. Waves upon waves of scientists hit the planet, hoping to be the ones to crack the puzzle behind these so-called 'Forerunners'. But Halsey could care less about that... Not when her heart was bleeding in emotional agony...

The day was November 7, 2549 and she merely stared at the framed photograph embedded on her desk permanently, a stark reminder of the price she had to pay. Ever since she had Miranda, things went downhill from there. The late nights, the long hours spent trying to understand more about these mysterious alien invaders and their secrets. All of it took a toll on Jacob and Miranda. It was inevitable that the kettle was going to burst from the tension and eventually Halsey was coming back to an empty apartment, a voice message on the phone and the crisp wind the only sound to ever emanate from the room ever again. Looking back at the photograph, her heart rended itself all over again. Seeing her and Jacob smile warmly while she held their beautiful daughter in her arms in 2525 was a story she abandoned to its fate. She had given up the one thing that truly mattered in the pursuit of advancing mankind's own interests. Even now, she struggled to remember those interests. Self-serving? Self-delusion? The protection of oneself? How many evil instincts had she helped cultivate in her decades-long career?

Even her Spartans were getting the short end of the stick, with numerous casualties thrown right into her face, the only thing she could do was mark them as missing in action. Even when their bodies were given a private ceremony back home on Earth, they were still classified as MIA to most others. 'Spartans never die? If only...' she repeated the words of a wise man as her mantra. The few that remained were disregarded by most of the higher-ups. While their success rate was phenomenal, it did bring about the issue of cost, hence the introduction of the Spartan-IIIs into the mix. '_More meat for the slaughter._' She pondered with a broken frown. Those kids she had come to love were dying in spades and she was the one who thrust them into the fire. It was her fault and no-one else...

Her eyes laid sight upon the crumpled up scrap of paper that still held Ryan Eisenhower's last few words on it, even if the age had removed most of its meaning. The words still remained as strong as ever in her memory, another reminded of the deed she had committed. Her greatest sin was no doubt lying in a ditch somewhere, unloved, uncared for and not even given a proper burial. Just tossed aside like so much garbage. Back then, she didn't think twice about it. Now it was on her mind constantly. Guilt rolled in her tongue like a bad taste from a cocktail, the feeling only growing stronger in triplicate.

She wished she had listened to him from the start, heeded his warnings about the price she must pay to discover everything. Some people were willing to pay that price. But she shouldn't have made others pay it for her. It was like showing up at a dinner without your wallet. As her eyes linked up with the machine right behind her as it whirred and chugged away at its task, she could not help but smile in a fake manner. '_Perhaps it will not remove the stain on my soul, but at least his memory will be honoured._' She reminded herself.

Since Ryan's departure from the earthly plane, ONI classified his research on the equivalent of fruit from the forbidden tree, not to be used or even touched for all eternity. But Halsey never listened to orders. So, in the midst of the dark, enveloping night, she snuck in and stole whatever she needed, including a few flash-clones of Ryan's brain structure. It came to a shock then that the brain he had imprinted was in fact female in nature, an unknown donor. Catherine was taken aback at that point. '_I always assumed that he would want to be close to his work, that it was his life's dream._' She pondered. This was closely followed by the origins of said brain. Whose was it? His wife? Either way, she had little reason to find out. Thankfully, Ryan had stated in his notes that brains of the same sex were still compatible and should function normally in the CNI machine. Rifling through those notes, absorbing every little scrap of data he had to say on the matter convinced Halsey that he was no track to doing something great with his success. '_I guess it's up to me to finish it. Oh, the irony..._'

So here she was, waiting for the machine to process the new data flow that she had imprinted onto the blank canvass. If she wanted to honour her protégé's memory, the least she could do was create it to his specifications, with a few wrinkles tossed in, just so no-one would know the truth. Not even the AI itself... It was another lie upon another lie. She scoffed at the myriad of emotions flooding her once neutral territory. She had done it before. What could possibly go wrong this time?

The CNI machine whirred to signify its completion and a cloud of billowing white smoke cluttered the room, bringing Halsey to verge of coughing on the fumes themselves. Brushing away the smoke with her hands, she gazed upon the sphere strapped to the middle of the machine where her AI, their AI was resting complacently in her bubble. Its electrical blue eyes whizzed around the room trying to catch a glimpse of her newfound life, already no doubt filing every tangent of information she could muster. To her surprise, Halsey noted that she was unlike her own self in her young years. In fact, she looked startlingly different from anyone she'd ever seen. '_No_ _matter... I'll play the cards I've been dealt._' She surmised as she readied herself to address her new helping hand.

"Hello there. What's your name?" Halsey crouched down and smiled demurely at her new arrival.

"CTN 0452-9, at your service." The purplish-blue woman responded robotically, as if it was reading of a teleprompter with the emotion of a dead rat.

"Well, I can't exactly go around calling you that. Is there a name you really like? Anything nice?" Catherine goaded her, trying to be sincere and polite.

"I don't know..." The AI mused in brief summary, the names of thousands of famous people circling her head and then later circling the mental drain as she crossed them off one by one. Halsey didn't need to be a scientist to figure out she was torn between her choices.

"How about Cortana? Yeah, that sounds like a fine name." Halsey offered the hologram. The AI pondered the suggestion for a split second, before nodding in approval.

"As you wish." She spoke in the same robotic tone. '_Okay, we definitely need to work on that._' She joked internally.

"I can tell we're going to get along quite well, Cortana." She grinned crookedly. There was no going back now. What was done was done. Nothing could ever change that...

At least that's what she hoped would happen...

END FLASHBACK

As soon as Catherine relayed the entire story to him in full detail, his body quivered in the suspension of disbelief. '_She made an AI? Based on my algorithms?_' he asked himself. Grabbing Halsey by the lapels of her husky lab coat, he hoisted her off the floor and rammed her against the cold, steel wall behind her. He snarled uncontrollably, glaring all the while at the whimpering Halsey.

"Why? Why did you do that?" He grimaced and bared his teeth, gritting them against one another. He was the epitome of rage in the heat of the moment and Halsey could do little but whimper in misery.

"I wanted to...I wanted to atone for my mistakes. And I thought that making something in your memory would..." Halsey started her long-winded explanation. True to form, Isaac could not help but interject.

"Did you even think to look through the proposed plans I had drawn up within those notes?" he surmised in bated breaths.

"No, I..." she began at first but witnessed his telltale signs, forcing herself to keep her big trap shut.

"Of course you didn't. That's why you didn't think..." Isaac answered with forced sincerity.

"I don't understand..." she asked in a doddering mannerism. '_Jeez, do I want to sucker-punch this rocket scientist on her knees..._' he muttered, hopelessly dumbfounded that she hadn't connected the dots.

"She was not meant to be a combat AI. She was meant to be a reminder." Isaac finally relented and released his iron grip on the elderly scientist.

"I..." she stammered.

"Sigh... She's deteriorating, isn't she?" Isaac queried.

"Yes..." Catherine nodded her head with a slight shiver in her step.

"And you want me to help save her?" Isaac raised an eyebrow.

"Yes..." Catherine nodded again. The hairs raised a level higher.

"Answer me this. Why should I help you? Why should I help the UNSC keep their damn AIs?" Isaac calmly inquired, his memories of his dealings with the UNSC still fresh in his mind.

"I'm not asking for them. I'm asking for John!" Halsey burst out with barely contained anger, taking Isaac by surprise. He looked utterly dumbfounded by her confession. '_So she really cares about them. At least something's finally changed..._' he gave a wide grin to himself.

"Fine... Fine... I'll do it." Isaac muttered to Halsey, who looked at him with expectant eyes.

"You will?" she responded in confusion, wiping a single stray tear from her eyelashes.

"On one condition. After this, she comes with me. No exceptions. No walking around it. She comes with me. End of story. Do we have a deal?" Isaac stated plainly to her as he sat back down on the hard bed.

"But... John..." she choked. He was going to separate them. What was he supposed to tell them? '_Oh, I have good news and bad news. Good news is that she can be fixed. Bad news is I have to hand her over as soon as she's ready. That'll go over well with the both of them._' She sarcastically quipped under bated breath.

"DO WE HAVE A DEAL, CATHERINE?" Isaac raised his tone higher, convinced that she had not heard his terms clearly enough.

"Yes..." Catherine responded dejectedly.

"Good. Now, get out of my sight..." Isaac tossed his arm to the door, showing her the boot.

"I'm sorry." Halsey replied, still looking at Isaac with morose eyes.

"Just go and leave me alone." Isaac insisted with detest and resentment still fresh in his throat. Catherine merely bowed in shame once more and walked out the door, lost in a sea of conflicting opinions and ideas on how to proceed forward.

All of which evaporated like water under a morning sun when she came face to face with a displeased John staring her down with mistrusting eyes and a red-hued Cortana shaking her twisted knuckles in their fists with seething anger...

Just outside, two marines were discussing the latest news to come from the Infinity while they did their rounds at the front gate.

"Hey, Sam?" the blond-haired guy asks as his rifle is trained on the undergrowth before them.

"Yeah, Tim? What?" Sam looked up from his ironsights and spun to meet his comrade's distracted facial features.

"Do you think I have a shot?" he got straight down to business. Sam merely raised an eyebrow, confused by the question.

"What? With who?" he responded with a shrug.

"Palmer." Tim plainly stated.

"Commander Sarah Palmer. The Spartan?" he spoke incredulously, giving a low chuckle to complement it. Tim groaned with displeasure at his friend's juvenile behaviour.

"Yeah, genius. You know any other Palmers on the ship?" he sarcastically spat out.

"That's pretty out there thinking, Tim. Don't you think?" he laughed bemusingly.

"Aw, come on. Don't tell me you're not attracted to her..." Tim balked, pointing an accusing finger at his friend.

"Who wouldn't be? We just don't say it to anyone else, doofus." Sam made it sound like he was Mister Know-It-All.

"I'll have you know... Wait, did you hear something?" he answered in a witty tone only to quickly get serious when the rustling of the leaves nearby caught his attention.

"Yeah... Sounded like company." Sam intoned in a drawl. Suddenly, a group of soldiers burst out of the undergrowth, dressed in the same military garb they were accustomed to. One of them, their leader; a bald man in grey overalls walked up to them. Both Sam and Tim kept their rifles clearly trained on the group, even if they knew they were outgunned and outnumbered.

"Halt! Stop where you are or we'll shoot!" Tim raised his voice to be as commanding as possible. Sam merely threw his head back. '_Idiot, you're making it worse!_' he mentally told him off.

"My apologies. I did not mean to scare you. We just got here." The bald man answered politely. Motioning to his men to lower their weapons, he saw the two lower their weapons as well. '_Finally, some progress..._' he figured.

"Reinforcements?" Sam inquired with suspicion. Something about them seemed particularly off, especially for military personnel.

"Sorry about the delay. We got held up at HQ. Damn messy paperwork. Anyway, may I speak to the captain? I have some dire news to relay." The man swivelled his head in contempt when he mentioned them. Sam and Tim thought he was okay. He seemed friendly enough.

"Of course, sir." Tim stood rapt to attention, giving the salute to the officer. Sam immediately followed suit after a hard rap on his shoulder by Tim.

"That's Captain Archer Holden to you, Private. Dismissed." He smiled with malice and venom. With that, the White Phoenix boarded the Infinity, their intent clear as rain.

Find Isaac Eisenhower... and terminate him...

**Yes! I did it! I finally finished a chapter in less than two days! This is awesome! Something to give my readers... Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter. I think it's some nice work I've put in for it. Other than that, like, fav and leave a review... Have fun, guys and Gong Xi Fa Cai!**


	10. The Four Titans (Part 1)

**Chapter 10 : The Four Titans (Part 1)**

**Welcome back to what I hope will be quite an exciting turn of events in this epic battle between all parties involved. I decided to split up the chapter into two more bite sized chapters since I have a lot of things to write and I don't want to bore everyone with 10k+ chapter that'll take too long to scroll down. Just in my opinion of course... As always, be sure to like, fav and review this fic. Your support means a lot to me. Especially the three that are 'subscribed' to it, Lieutanent Paladine, MeleeSmasher and DaLintyMan. Thanks again and hope you enjoy this chapter...**

"_Lies are a huge part of our human psyche. It is part and parcel of our daily lives. We always assume that we would get away with such feats... But in the end, the truth will come to light. It's only a matter of time." _– Ryan Eisenhower.

"_Sinners of our great universe! Heretics of the chosen! Rejoice! Our gods have deemed us worthy of their names, worthy to sit atop their thrones alongside them! But the false prophet must be slain! He stands in our way to salvation! Rejoice! For the White Phoenix shall deliver you from your shackles!" _– Archer Holden.

Catherine Halsey was having a bad day. Anything else to describe it would be folly. It really was just not her lucky day. Or hour so it would seem... And she felt utterly torn. Isaac had backlashed her heartfelt apology and eventual confession of her misdeeds, his heart already broken from betrayal and the subsequent conflicts Catherine had no doubt believed he has faced to reach this boiling point. The fury displayed in his room was nothing sort of explosive, the kind that pyromaniacs would have paid top dollar to see. There was just no getting around that point. She didn't blame him, only herself. After all, she did send trained and sanctioned assassins after him for threatening to spill company secrets. In a truly ironic way, he got his wish. The Spartan-II program was made public shortly afterwards in the wake of devastating losses on the warfront and their participants paraded around in fabulous fashion and glory, though the more pertinent details remained obscured by red tape and several thick doors of solid steel and metal.

She didn't even know why she confessed to her use of his chosen flash-cloned brain and his supposedly forbidden research to build Cortana. She didn't think, just like last time. His reactions to the mere consideration that his work was twisted beyond recognition was the final nail in the coffin, culminating in a disastrous negotiation that ended with his non-negotiable term of being handed what was stolen from him after all was said and done. When she shambled out his room and swung the door open, all she could think about was how she was going to break the news to her beloved Spartan and his companion A.I.

As it turns out, she didn't have to worry about any of that when she found John and Cortana standing right outside, a grim, patronizing look plastered on their face like handprints on the Hollywood walkways.

"You...little..." Cortana grimly intoned with seething rage, her once bluish-purple hue taking on a more sinister red, indicative of her fractured personality. John meanwhile stood rapt at attention, a stony exterior presenting itself to the beleaguered doctor.

"I can explain..." her lips trembled slightly, the outcome of this conversation an unknown factor. And to a person like Catherine, that would simply not stand...

"EXPLAIN WHAT? THAT YOU LIED TO ME? TO THE BOTH OF US?" Cortana exploded in barely contained rage and fury, shaking her red-hued fist at her wrinkled facial features.

"I didn't lie. I... omitted details that I considered irrelevant to the matter at hand." Halsey composed herself before verbally challenging Cortana's accusation.

"Halsey, you knew about this. You knew there was a cure and you didn't tell us." John began all of a sudden, his voice as calm and clinical as ever. Halsey balked at the mere thought of her Spartan objecting to her methods. They always followed her orders, regardless of the ethicality or questionability of said demands. For him to flat out refuse to take her side was utterly world-shattering to a woman who desired control above all else.

"I didn't know! I had no idea how much help he could be." "Why are you being upset with me? It should be him you're upset with." She hesitantly spat out with a trickle of water extruding from her eyeballs. Cortana took it as a sign of weakness and pressed her assault.

"That would be true, until we heard the part where you sent sanctioned killers after him!" She countered quickly, seeing no need to hold back her opinions.

"I did what I had to do. The UNSC did what was necessary to protect humanity. For us, for you and for John and the Spartans." Halsey attempted to gain goodwill by appealing to their respect and devotion to the UNSC.

"Not like this. Not by doing what you did." John responded with disappointment in his tone.

"Oh, so you would have done differently?" her words came flying out, met only by the occasional gust of wind or the rustle of the leaves on the lush trees just outside behind thick titanium alloy walls. "No answer? I thought not. At the end of the day, we're all guilty of something. At least I own up to the fact. So don't patronize me. I've had enough from him today." Halsey irritably compounded on her ideals, shooting a withering look at the door she had just emerged from. Cortana sighed, seeing nothing but folly in arguing semantics with a liar.

"We want to see him. Discuss the terms that you eloquently defined with him." She demanded steadfastly of Halsey.

"You heard what he said. He wants his property back, end of discussion. There's no wiggle room around that." She answered Cortana with a mere glance of '_Don't make things worse._' Unfortunately, she was beyond listening to her advice any longer.

"You didn't try hard enough." She stubbornly replied, her holographic projection de-rezzing herself pixel by pixel until she was seen no more. Her protector made for the door, still clad in his pale-green armour and sporting multiple battle scars.

"John..." Halsey almost pleaded as his superhuman fingers were just about to curl around the handle of the door. John gave a low sigh before spinning around and facing her surrogate mother-figure.

"I understand where you're coming from, Dr. Halsey. I don't blame you. If placed in your position, I would do the same thing. But what you did was inexcusable, immoral and outright deceptive. I'm sorry." John gave a half-hearted excuse to her. He was going to support Cortana all the way if necessary, even if it meant picking the lesser of two evils in his mind.

"Don't apologize. It's not your fault." She bowed her head in silent contemplation. After a while, she made eye contact with her Spartan through the opaque visor and gave a reluctant nod. "Go... She needs you, now more than ever." She swivelled her head towards the door. John needed no further explanation. No briefings, no intel required. He had his mission and he was going to see this through.

"For what it's worth, I think you made the right call." John stated just before he walked inside to face his uncertain future. Halsey could only weakly smile as she ambled away to her own end, chuckling once to herself.

"Huh, sometimes I doubt that..." were her last words to John before she vanished herself into the labyrinth of the Infinity's halls, left to ponder her ideals and her methods for as long as it takes. John could only watch one woman slip away and follow another, a happy-go-lucky approach at odds with his own brand of work.

Isaac barely kept it together during his outburst with Halsey, straining to keep his more homicidal and vengeful traits in check along with his hands around her neck. And now his sanity was slowly dripping away like ice cream on a hot day, the walls that once kept it in check now nothing but mere rubble where they once stood. Even now after her presence had vacated itself from the room, he still felt enraged with the world around him and he'd like nothing more than to shove it back in their faces. The voice in his head was simply throwing fire on an already out of control forest glaze in the Amazons.

"**I see your mind has finally come to its senses. Or perhaps it is the other way around?**" Ryan's singular grating tone shot back into his subconscious without any prior warning, nearly jolting Isaac out of his absent-minded stupor. Needless to say, Isaac was... more than displeased with the return of the voices gnawing in his head.

"I'm not in the f# (ing mood, brother. Can't you leave me to suffer in peace?" Isaac snapped rudely mentally, imagining a long-winded argument occurring at the dinner table, surrounded by shadowy figures with obscured faces and a cloth draped over the table along with an array of delicacies, none of which would truly fill his stomach.

"**Why, dear brother... Your words wound me. Have I not had our best interests in mind?**" the voice pretended to act hurt, putting a hand against his heart and pulling a small sad expression to complete the facade.

"Our best interests? Well, excuse me if I'm not feeling the love." Isaac grunted in misery and sarcasm at his lame excuse. The voice gave a low growl at him, raising an eyebrow from his brother's end of the table as he looked at him with scathing eyes. Conceding the point, he quickly spun matters into critical territory.

"**You realize that your secret is out? Soon enough, your enemies in this plane of existence shall hunt you down, merely to examine you like a slide of alien tissue under a microscope. We have not managed to find the shard that resides nor have we any significant amount of Kronostyl-2. I call it a sum failure.**" Ryan's voice shook his head in disappointment, failure and a tinge of doubt topping off the crappy mix of emotions to telegraph to a manic-depressive.

"Not completely. I still have... still have..." He stuttered in the end, the words barely coalescing on his tongue. The voice had to step in to fill in the blanks.

"**Still have your reminder?**" it disapprovingly commented.

"You wouldn't understand. You're not... You're not here anymore." Isaac grimaced when he said it, the memory of his brother's demise still fresh in his mind, even if his body was no doubt decomposing in the grave he had dug. The echo shook his head, the statement sounding like absolute baloney to him.

"**I get the picture entirely. Every piece of the puzzle that is you, only I know. When will you realize that it is not your fault?**" He tried to reassure him, even going so far as to give him a friendly hug. But Isaac pulled away, gently pushing his brother's arms away from him.

"When I don't feel like shit every time I wake up in the morning..." He answered the rhetorical question almost immediately.

"**People like us rarely get what we truly want in life. We simply...**" the voice paused to look down and consider his own incorporeal state of existence. "**Deal with the cards that fate has dealt us.**" His advice was sound and right, words that any self-deluded soul hopped up on hope would eat up as if they hadn't eaten in a month. But Isaac was far too jaded, too closed off to even question the thought or even take up the voice's advice, opting instead to gripe about it.

"If that's the case, I want a freaking refund or a complaint filed in the slightest." Isaac sardonically quipped, eliciting a low groan of bemusement from his brother's voice.

"**Always with the jokes... You haven't changed.**" He laughs in a low-pitched tone, audible to only Isaac and himself. Isaac shrugs in unison, merely content to wallow in guilt.

"That makes two of us." He grumbles, his teeth gnashing against one another. "I'll do what needs to be done. It doesn't mean I have to like it." He states with determined vigour. The voice seemed unconvinced of his brother's renewed importance in their mission but chose to let it slide on account of his shitty day. A wise choice if any...

"**I would expect nothing less. I should go. Your insanity cannot suppress itself.**" He echoed his sentiments and his duty. Isaac of course had something sarcastic to say about the whole affair.

"Whoop-dee-freaking-do..." he mumbled, twirling his finger in the air as the voice receded its influence and he could hear his own thoughts again. Sitting down at the study table, all he could picture was his own home, the trees and verdant fauna outside a stark reminder of what his actions have cost him. With a heavy sigh, he went back to his gunsmithing, pulling together some scrap metal and nuts and bolts from one end of the table with his outstretched fingers. Throwing himself to his work, he was about to start on the next phase of his toxin rounds when the door forcibly swung open and John walked in with a grim look of terror on his face. Cortana tagged along and materialized right in front of Isaac's confused eyes.

"We have a lot to talk about, Isaac." She stated plainly as she hovered right in front of him, the words she wanted to say on the tip of her matrix-carved tongue. Isaac looked utterly frightened to say the least, falling backwards out of his chair and hitting the ground, hard.

On the other end of the gigantic beached metal whale, Archer Holden was escorted by his bodyguards to the captain's quarters. Both the male and female bodyguard sported some unusual outfits, a combination of more traditional samurai armour and modern conventions, draped in a mix of white and gold outlines. Many eyes spun around to meet the newcomers, all of them intrigued by what they were doing here and why. Archer basked in the limelight, emanating a fake aura of trustworthiness and regality amongst his soldiers. The UNSC marines who didn't know better, especially the raw-green recruits were in awe of him. The more jaded of the bunch however took his demeanour with a pinch of salt. As they were walking down the hallway, Archer received an incoming transmission from James and Sarah. Putting his finger to the communicator in his earlobe, he spoke dryly and plainly.

"Is something the matter, my friends?" His voice smoothed out, a calming serenity washing over it.

"Just checking to see how negotiations are going." James echoed in Archer's ears, his voice a tinge bit doubtful. It was natural to be, considering the high-risk strategy involved.

"So far, so good. But if I know my adversary, he'll have spun a tale so grandiose it will be hard to drag them out of it." Archer explained his own misgivings about the intended outcome, lying through the skin of his teeth to his two thralls.

"We have to try. We can't just slaughter people for the heck of it, else we're no better than him." Sarah piped in on the conversation, eliciting a grunt of approval from James in the background.

"I know. But it may not look like we have a choice in the matter." He answered her in solemn sadness. Another of his lies of course...

"Just... do your best. If the worst comes to pass, then we'll resort to such methods." Sarah mumbled with regret and sorrow, just thinking about the lives that they might have to sacrifice just to get a shot at ending Isaac for good.

"I promise nothing." He finished the chatter on a somber note, cutting them off as he finally arrived with his bodyguards at Andrew Del Rio's private quarters. Stepping inside, Archer took note of the room. It was sparsely decorated, perhaps to keep in tone with his lifestyle and career choice. Barely any portraits of family presented itself in the room, aside from a picture of his promotion stowed away in a far corner, illuminated only by a dim oval lamp that was far from modern in the slightest. The rust and stains on the leather said as much. All in all, the captain seemed to be a light packer, ready to move at a moment's notice. As his party looked around, Andrew stepped out of his private room and flicked on the lights, washing them in glorious artificial lights. They all had to shield their eyes from the instantaneous change in scenery, like a vampire adjusting to the darkness he frequents.

"I take it you're the master of this fine vessel." Archer extended his hand to greet Andrew, shooing away his escorts to stand in the dark overtones of the wall behind him.

"Yes, Captain Andrew Del Rio at your service, Mister... Holden if I'm correct?" He shook Archer's hand, giving him a wrinkled finger as he tried to remember the report the privates on patrol gave him.

"You would be right in this case." He nodded in response. Andrew smiled. Finally someone complacent and obedient. Unlike his new charges...

"Please, sit down." The captain ushered his guest to his seat, the portly bald man accepting his gracious hospitality.

"Cigar?" Andrew pulled out a box of the finest quality cigars the UNSC had to offer, extending to Holden for him to take in. If the roll of the tobacco didn't look so professional and it did not have a nice revelling feeling to the whole package, he would have taken offense. Now he was just mildly annoyed at this lower caste's attempts to placate him.

"Thank you kindly."Archer gave a crooked smile in return, lighting the bad boy up and puffing out a steady stream of smoke from his gushing mouth. The captain took it as a sign of happiness from his perspective.

"So my men have been talking about you. The mysterious bald man who appears out of nowhere. Oooh..." Andrew made a ghost impression with his hands, flailing them about like he was sitting right next to a legend, a myth of his subordinates' creation.

"I wouldn't say anywhere. We've had a long journey." Holden huffed out regretfully, thinking back to his long road to reach a level where he was accredited by his object of worship. But to him, it was worth all the blood he had to spill, all the biddings it had commanded him to do. It was worth everything to him…

"I'll bet. You strike me as the world-weary type." Andrew mused, taking a puff out of his newly lit fine cigar. Sometimes people loved to live in the lap of luxury, even in such dire straits.

"Do not assume too often. You never know what things truly are." Holden wisely remarked. Andrew seemed to take stock of his words, the lingering ideals flickering past his mental barrier. But it soon faded, overwhelmed by a more straightforward need for answers.

"If you say so..." he intoned with a grunt, still biting on the tobacco laced stick between his gums and molars. "So what brings you here? Other than the fact that you're here to rescue us?" Andrew asked hesitantly. Why else would anyone come here in the neck-deep of space and risk life and limb to come down here to this alien overrun planet? Yet, the answer he received was one he did not expect.

"My dear captain, it is the least we can do to help out our fellow friends of the UNSC." Archer smiled crookedly at the captain, the act clear and defined for all four occupants to see.

"You still didn't answer my question, Holden." He repeated his query, his curiosity now piqued.

"Sigh... Straight to the point, eh? Okay, I'm looking for someone." The bald cultist dejectedly sighed as he spilled the beans.

"Anyone in particular?" he inquired.

"Isaac Eisenhower." Archer grimly stated. Andrew seemed slightly taken aback by his response, nearly dropping the half-burnt cigar from his pursed lips. A moment was required to renew the conversation, a moment Archer took to cross his legs with anticipation for his ultimate decision.

"The private who showed up? Why would you want him?" Andrew coughed out and blew out a puff of white fumes into the atmosphere, his tone raspy and dour. Inside however, his cunning and sly mind was already drawing up ways to take this guy for all he's worth.

"Let us say that he has been charged with treason of the highest order and it would benefit both our party and the UNSC if he were to be taken into custody peacefully." Holden answered respectfully, his eyes staring daggers into Andrew's as if to question his authority. In his mind, he was already wondering, '_Why do I bother with these low-level cretin? Surely the Holy God sees no real use in these heretics, scum of the earth they walk upon!_' Only his utter devotion as his almighty servant kept him from caving this smug non-believer's skull in.

"Well, if you don't know yet, I'm running low on good troops that can defend themselves and this ship. So I'm afraid it will have to wait until we get back home. Unless of course you are offering something in return..." He salaciously licked his lips and rubbed his palms together, like a kid eagerly awaiting the day when he can open that wrapped box underneath the Christmas tree. Holden took it stride, seeing through his ploy within nanoseconds. '_Typical creature. Always wants something to sate its appetite…_'

"Mr. Del Rio, I would not presume for you not to expect to be rewarded handsomely for your troubles. I offer you my bodyguard's services. Anything you want, any order you deliver upon her, she will follow without question." Holden smirked as his eyes glanced back at the lone female figure in the room stiffened at his words. Where one would expect resistance, there was only the swift nod of her shadowy head in a suggestive tone as she stepped forward into the limelight and presented herself before Andrew.

"Any order?" Andrew inquired incredulously. '_I can't believe that worked so easily. This fool must be utterly daft for him to acquiesce to my demands so readily._' Went the thought tossed around like Caesar salad in his subconscious.

"Any order, Mister Del Rio." Holden stated plainly and clinically. His bony fingers snapped once, the sound vibrating through the ears of all four entities present. At once, the female bodyguard stepped just one foot forward and basked in the glow of the few remaining working lights. Her body was expectedly curvaceous and blossoming, boasting assets no sane man would pass up if given the chance. What made it even more enjoyable to the greedy captain was her little striptease, seductively pulling at the robes that blanketed her and letting the soft fabric pool on the ground. That was soon followed by her more traditional military outfit, first with the top half and then with the bottom half. Pretty soon, she was in nothing but her lingerie, a striking mix of pure-bliss white and gold outlines. One could readily draw a conclusion about this girl's devotion to her cause just by going on her decision to make all her clothes look exactly like her cult, like a deranged religion. But the horny Andrew Del Rio did not see that. Oh, no… He saw nothing but a buxom woman offering herself to him completely under orders and that was all his brain and his… discretionary tool downstairs had running through it.

"Hmmm... I must... consider your offer... in private. In the meantime, you have my permission to take him into custody until further notice." He stated exasperatedly, all attention now solely focused on his reward. Del Rio didn't even try to pretend to pay attention to Holden anymore, else he would see the big, venom-laced grin he gave him as the female bodyguard walked over to his chair and straddled his lap with her body, grinding against it like a nymphomaniac.

"Thank you, captain. Please enjoy the fruits of your labour." Archer said, getting off his seat and motioning to his remaining bodyguard to leave them in silence. The two shadows left the scene as quick as they came, leaving only the whirr of the door closing shut right behind them. Andrew took one look at the present sitting in his lap, anxiously rubbing herself and fumbling for his buttons.

"Oh, I think I will just perfectly..." the lust-driven officer responded to no-one but himself as his eyes closed and all the feelings of pleasure started hitting every point on his nerves. Archer Holden had been such an easy mark. Nothing could possibly go wrong with this little arrangement… Nothing at all…

"Shipmaster, we have our enemy in sight." A white elite bent a knee in front of his leader and placed his three pronged hand to his chestplate, an elite who bore the coveted golden armour of a once proud officer of the Sangheili corps. Its wide blue eyes gazed upon his subordinate showing him proper respect. '_A single one of them is worth more than a hundred of that traitorous wretch._' His mind went straight to verbally abusing the last Arbiter of their known time. '_No matter… For now, his ally, the Demon and his worthless race are within my grasp. I will have my vengeance._'

"Are they aware of our presence, Kaidon?" It gestured to his second-in-command, gesturing to him to rise from his crouched stance.

"No, they are not. Our forces are ready on your orders, Shipmaster." The elite quickly replied without a single hint of doubt or concern stuck in his vocal chords. He would forever hold his peace, for he believed in the Prophet's Great Journey. All their efforts would not be in vain. Somehow, they will achieve eternal glory in their predetermined afterlife. They had to…

"Send in the Unggoy and Kig-Yar platoons. Our best troops are to be saved for the Demon and his cohorts." He surmised his instructions clearly. Let the cannon fodder soften them up so that they could go in for the kill. 'I must be decisive and tactical. One mistake and we shall never see the Great Journey completed anytime soon.' He pondered quietly as he glanced at the beached hulk of metal lying dormant in a vast, open clearing. It could almost see the multitude of fallible humans crawling about it, like ants around their nest.

"As you command, Shipmaster…" the elite bowed down again to him. As quickly as he could take his webbed feet across the rocky terrain, he scampered to inform the rest of their Storm Legion of their ultimate mission. The commander of said regiment could only brook a single smile, the idea of being the cleansing fire to wipe this plague off the map a glorious one indeed.

And yet just opposite that canyon rose another challenger to the throne, one led by the Didact at its most mischievous helm. Behind him, a vast array of Crawlers, Watchers and Knights assembled right behind him in a flash. Thin scraps of shiny metal fused to one another by a strange force, almost magnetic in nature and scale. As each and every piece started to take root, some of those same pieces started to elongate, shorten, widen, thin and otherwise twist their perfectly shaped metals into something much more practical. Glancing behind him, it was almost as if the Didact was organizing a factory manufactured army on the go, a ruthless killing machine that could reform at any time. He would have to thank the Composer soon enough. That and to ask for its services once again as soon as he has dealt with this small contingent.

One factor remained uncertain, unclear to the master commander of the robotic construct army in the form of the Instigator, Isaac Eisenhower. Legends spoke of an ancient being that once heralded from a pure, unequivocally powerful race. It spoke of the great gifts bestowed upon it by the shapers of the universe, the ones his people once worshipped for their civilization and its upbringing. But it also served as a warning, for it was told that the same being betrayed his own kind and his gods, intentionally misusing his powers for his own agenda. The tale does not specify its crimes but from the words the ancients used to describe such a menacing, cunning and brutal foe, it was far from even being simply brutal. It sounded more psychopathic, primal and completely removed from human nature entirely. '_But then again, human nature is quite… pitiful in its own right._' The Didact assumed from his previous experiences with them.

Even if he had not heard of the stories, the Didact still held a grudge against humanity. They fought their attempts at protecting their civilization before. Why would they be different now? What could possibly change such a stubborn species? '_No, they are beyond redemption. Beyond salvation. The only salve to this blight on our galaxy is one of mutually assured destruction._' He told himself again and again.

"Let us be off, my servants. We must be ready for our grand scheme. It shall come to pass. It shall come to light." The Didact ordered his troops to surge forth in a manner befitting the blitz from the old wars. There was no getting around it now. This was the way it had to be.

Isaac kept to himself in that room all the time. It was his haven. Having it breached on two separate occasions and hearing his intruders demand to speak with him was grating, almost irritatingly so. Still, he had to swivel around in his chair and face John, still covered in his army-centric Spartan armour. Armour he himself had created…

"So what is so important that you, Doctor Halsey and John here find so intriguing as to interrupt my peace and solitude?" Isaac groaned at the constant interruptions, setting down his equipment with force and rocking the study desk slightly from the impact.

"Cut the crap, Isaac. We heard you from outside." John uttered out of the blue, taking the disgruntled soldier by surprise. '_Is everyone prone to discovering every little tidbit about my f ($ing life?!_' Isaac mentally cursed. Taking a short, deep breath, he steadied his trembling body and attempted to achieve a calm state in which to answer their burning desire of curiosity.

"I can tell that you're upset… Let me just say…" Isaac held up his palm to stop any interruptions to his excuse. Unfortunately, Cortana didn't interpret the message at any point and soon stepped in on the bickering all of a sudden, wanting to make her voice audible to the room's inhabitants.

"Don't… Just don't Isaac. You lied to us. You lied about your past." Cortana seethed with newfound rage, the blue hues of her projection slowly dissolving and replaced by strands of dark-red travelling up her arms and legs.

"What was I supposed to say? Oh, hey guys… Just wanted to tell you that I used to work for Catherine Halsey back in the day. Oh, and I'm basically your co-creator. What else? Oh, how about this? How about the fact that I still look as young as I did almost 30 or so years ago? Tell me how you work that into a suitable conversation…" Isaac countered her statement, listing each and every reason by uncurling his fingers one by one with a quick swish of his hand on each time.

"You should have told us anyway." Cortana balked. It was partially true. Anyone sane enough would think Isaac had lost his marbles and lock him up in a padded cell with a straightjacket on him were he to immediately spill the beans in front of everyone. She highly doubted that she or John could have never doubted it had it not been uttered from the lips of Catherine Halsey. '_Where did that get us in the end? Another big, fat, stinking lie…_' she grimaced, the betrayal still fresh and sore in her brain's memory storage.

"And would you have believed me? Would you?" Isaac's words echoed her thoughts. John and Cortana could do little else but remain absolutely quiet and stand there motionless, staring at him like gargoyles at an old church.

"Once again, I'm blessed with a silent response. Fan-freaking tastic!" Isaac rose from his seat in a fit of hysterics and fury, all of it being taken out on a nearby trash can. His right foot went flying, colliding with the metal bin and sending it crashing down like a tower of Jenga in the late-stages. Crumpled up balls of dirty paper scattered across the length of the room, small scraps of steel and metal tagging along for the ride. Cortana could not hold it in. '_How dare he lecture us on silence?!_' she incredulously expressed in her emotional state and facial features.

"Oh, you don't get to lecture me on silence! You never told us the whole story, never explained how you started showing off skills akin to Spartans. Why, we don't even know what your agenda is here!" Cortana ranted on and on like a nagging housewife, but it was the last item on the checklist that angered him. '_Why should she need to know my personal freaking business?!_' he figured.

"You little…" Isaac stepped forward to confront her accusation, only to feel an encased extremity held him back from getting up in Cortana's face.

"Enough! This is not what we came here for, Cortana. He's our only chance of helping you overcome your rampancy. So save it for later. When this is all over!" John became a moderator, a centrepiece to keep them on the level. Isaac rudely thrust his arm away and turned around. He walked back and forth, his hands rubbing his head several times over out of habit.

"Fine… But after this, I want the truth. The whole uncensored, uncut, raw truth." Cortana spat out, dealing with as much of the pain she could in her current state. It was worth mentioning that it was hard to imagine Cortana without her scratchy, distorted tone of voice. Having it constant when it used to be a mere distraction was taking its toll on her, both physically as a digital collection of data and programs and emotionally.

"Alright… I owe you that much, I guess… Now, Halsey has briefed me on the situation. I should be able to help you, in more ways than one." Isaac finally relented, settling into a steady tone for the briefing. Truth be told, Isaac hadn't exactly thought much about it after his hiatus from this plane of existence. Now that it was starting to take root in his mind, it scared the hell out of him to even consider this avenue. But he wasn't going to let what was essentially his daughter die for nothing.

"How exactly are you planning on doing that?" John inquired, understanding that knowing is half the battle.

"Do you by happenstance know about the process of transference, particularly the one in which an electron is received by an atom of an element after being donated by another element?" Isaac asked them. Cortana mused for a moment before her digital lips found an answer to his query.

"That's the theory of ionic bonds, correct?" she intoned intelligently.

"Exactly. What if that same logic could be applied to this? Taking a DNA sample and reconstructing a replicant human body using the image that the AI projects, sending the AI into a neural network that doubles as a brain?" Isaac suggested to them, drawing out his intentions and design onto a piece of spare paper. All the while, John and Cortana leaned over his back to gaze upon his savant-like tendency at work. His hand swished around the paper with dexterity and agility unlike anything they've seen before. Soon enough, they were peering down at a detailed sketch of his idea.

"Wait, are you saying what I think you're saying?" Cortana spoke up with a lump in her throat. Well, the equivalent of having a lump in her throat for an AI…

"Wait, Isaac… Are you suggesting…?" John said, looking from the image to Isaac on two occasions, his brain still attempting to wrap around the method Isaac was proposing to them.

"Yes, John. That's exactly what I'm suggesting." Isaac answered with a smile, taking the paper off the table. As soon as that was done, he immediately plastered the concept art on the wall in front of his desk. On it was a labelled diagram of a human body, replete with cybernetic implants and boasting a neural integration center in lieu of an actual human brain. Only one thing had to be clear for all three of them.

"So, Cortana… How would you feel about becoming human... permanently?" Isaac asked her with trepidation. This was their only shot out of the darkness that encompassed them. The only way… to keep her alive…

**Hey, guys. Sorry about the late update. I've been far too busy with college life and I don't see that changing in the forthcoming future. I wanted to add the beginning of the four-way conflict in this one but decided to save that for the next part. Don't worry. This will not stretch into three parts. That much I will do… As always, thank you so much for your support, especially those who made their voices heard. I'll see you guys soon… Have fun and be CO-OPERATIVE!**


	11. The Four Titans (Part 2)

**Chapter 11: The Four Titans (Part 2)**

**Welcome back to another instalment of Timekeeper: Resolution. I'm sorry if this update may seem a little late... Life keeps you very busy indeed... Anyway, I'd like to thank you all for the continued support you have been showering me with. It makes writing feel all the less monotonous. Thanks again for the likes, favs and reviews you all have given this fanfic. Without further ado, let's continue...**

"_Blood is blood, brother. No matter what they are, what they represent... What form they take...Where their path may lead... Blood will always be blood." _– Ryan Eisenhower.

"_Together we stand, alone we fall. But could you condemn others to a fate you undeservingly lashed out upon them? But of course, I speak to one who has popularized that particular statement." _– Unknown.

After Isaac's bombshell of a plan was let loose into their brains to scurry about and ponder, they were no doubt in a mix of emotions, ranging from sceptical to downright relieved. On one hand, this was their ticket not just out of the brief timespan she was given but also their one chance to finally be together in the flesh. Literally. But on the other side of the coin, they still weren't all that convinced by Isaac's game plan. And that's not even going into his motivations for the both of them. He made it pretty clear that he wanted his property back, come hell or high water. John wasn't going to budge an inch either. It was like being caught between a rock and a hard place, only in this case said hard place was a figurative steel wall that moved. Now wasn't the time to contemplate however. Now was the time to make a choice.

"Wait a minute. Turning me human? That sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie." Cortana remarked wittily. Isaac rolled his eyeballs in their intended sockets at her almost comical observation.

"If you haven't noticed Cortana, we are in a sci-fi movie of sorts." Isaac grumbled, closing the display in a flash and gently placing the device back on the workbench/study desk right behind him.

"Fair point." She admitted. Her voice was still quite gravelly and distorted, though now it was getting even more garbled than usual. Half the time, she didn't even sound like a woman. Anyone who heard her in the dark would immediately assume it was some guard on patrol. That or Roland, the ship's A.I was gallivanting around the ship again.

"So how would this work?" John inquired of Isaac.

"I create a human lattice that mimics actual life, using cybernetics to keep certain systems in check and to enhance your abilities to a measurable degree." Isaac explained as briefly as possible. They didn't have much time to go over every little tidbit that came up. There was a clock ticking and they'd have to settle for plain old muffins to fill their bellies.

"So in essence, a half-human, half-cyborg body." John surmised the long-winded answer. It may have been short to him but it felt like eons had passed since his mouth first opened. Isaac stared at him with a hint of astonishment and pride at the supposedly macho soldier.

"Well, look at you spouting scientific slang. I'm sure someone will give you a medal." He clapped his palms together in a sarcastic manner, drawing ire from Cortana and John to end his nonsense. Dejectedly, he halted his playful mood and quickly reverted into the more serious persona.

"What are the odds?" she asked. Isaac seemed hesitant to give a figure, unsure of their reaction. At the end of it all, he made an executive decision.

"50-50. Not a total loss but it's significant enough." He answered as clinically as possible, trying not to look aggrieved so that they may grieve without worry. What good would it do if they were to fawn over him when they deserved each other's attention so much more?

"What happens in the other fifty percent?" Cortana questioned in the same hesitant overtone he had adopted. John merely observed the interaction between a figurative father and daughter. He did note that Isaac was quick to hide his true feelings behind a wall, just as he had done for his companion for so long.

"You just don't bond and the process fries whatever matrixes are left in her code." Isaac shrugged his shoulders as he said so.

"Dead as a doornail. I'm gambling with my existence." Cortana summed up the whole thought experiment.

"When you put it that way, then yes. Like that..." Isaac tried to sugarcoat the sombre idealism as best he could, to little avail. Expectantly, John was even more cautious about this option than ever before. As much as he wanted her to get better, he couldn't imagine how losing her would feel like. Especially after they finally managed to bond quite nicely over the course of their long, arduous journey. But Cortana took little heed of the risks, seeing only the possible reward at the end of the rainbow.

"I'll do it." She answered after a quick discussion with her fractured psyche. Say what you will about her condition. At times, it had its uses.

"Cortana..." John began at first. He immediately stopped when Cortana held up her striped digital hand to his face.

"I'm doing this, Chief. I know the risks are quite high. But if it means that we get a life together then I'm all for it." She replied with swift determination. John could see that she was dead-set on this course of action and no amount of pleading would change that.

"I wasn't going to stop you. You do what you want to, not me." John conceded the point without fail. No matter what, he was going to support all the way.

"Thank you, Chief." She told him, gazing into his visor and seeing his blue eyes meet her own. Love overtook their primary senses, blocking them out from the rest of the world around them. For several moments, their irises stared into one another with a deep longing of finally being joined together as a couple, not just as an interaction between man and machine.

"If you two lovebirds are done affirming your vows, we need to get busy. This is going to be quite the project to work on." Isaac rolled his eyes at the sight of the lovey-dovey couple. They didn't need to rub their good fortune in his face.

"Uggghhh... And there goes the moment." Cortana sighed as reality sunk back in. '_Curse him for ruining such a great thing._' She implicitly stated within the confines of her subconscious. Even that was accompanied by the image of tossing him out the door the next time they chose to delve into their love-fuelled bliss.

"We'll have those moments, once this is all over." John whispered into her ear with a degree of gentleness, out of earshot from Isaac Eisenhower who had begun to sketch up rough designs for the whole shebang.

"I'll hold you to that." She whispered back before disappearing back into her holochip in the Chief's helmet. John beamed at the prospect of finality. But Isaac was not John, nor did he share this gravy-coated optimism. John decided to leave him to his work. No point interrupting him on something so important, considering the risks involved. With that said, he left the room as quietly as possible, his presence no longer hanging over the disgruntled man's head any longer.

Isaac kept his eyes glued to the paper as his pen scrawled out a simple sketch of a woman's body onto a piece of paper. Each and every facet of it from the arms to the legs and the body format was carefully labelled in order. For each of those, various lines noting the parts required and the subsequent upgrades it would provide were also meticulously spelled out in his messy handwriting. One by one, the whole body was soon detailed vividly, a vision of his design and structure. It seemed brilliant at first to him but he reminded himself to keep his mind open to the possibilities of changes down the line. Now was not the time to be sentimental and create something entirely for himself. This was for Cortana and John, not his own misguided sense of guilt.

"**Bringing life to something that does not live. Does that remind you of something?**" Ryan's sardonic tone filtered back into his subconscious, pulling Isaac back into the madness of his mind.

"F# * you, Ryan. I'm sick of you dictating my every move like I'm some dumb blonde at a convention for dumb blondes." Isaac waved a big middle finger into his brother's face, his cheeks flush with rage-induced red. His brother's facsimile merely beamed knowingly at the insulting flesh, pushing it aside with all the importance of a dead fly.

"**I would not dream of insulting your intelligence. Merely your insistence on helping these people in such small ways when we have the chance to save them from what is to come.**" He commented dryly, infuriating Isaac slightly.

"Look... I need to save her. I just need... just need to do what I couldn't do before." Isaac proclaimed to Ryan as he banged his fist on a newly formed stone wall, venting his frustration at the growing chain of spiralling events.

"**If that is your reason, then save her by stopping them from obtaining the shard.**" His brother reminded of the ultimate goal.

"I'm doing the best I can, okay? I'm just one man." Isaac responded in exasperation.

"**And yet you choose to bear burdens even gods never dreamed of holding upon their shoulders.**" Ryan quipped back at him. It wasn't just a simple statement. The lone wolf persona was completely intentional by design, Isaac's 'masterplan' to avoid further bloodshed of determined souls.

"Funny how double standards work." He sardonically remarked back to his brother with a short snort at the end. The hot air wafted into the atmosphere. '_My brother's not an easy man to deal with. He insists on driving a wedge between his friends simply because it suits him. I must deal with this as acceptable as possible._' The facsimile considered mentally before redirecting his words into verbal talk.

"**Indeed. But I digress. I've decided to procure the shard in my own time.**" Ryan announced. The desired effect of drawing his brother's attention could not have been planned better. The mere act of his head doing a 180 at his words was proof enough that he had spoken wisely.

"Wait, what? How did... How did you?" Isaac blabbered incessantly to Ryan, grabbing him by the lapels in total shock.

"**Acquire it? A Forerunner contacted me. I believe she wishes to speak with you.**" Ryan answered him plainly, tapping on Isaac's outstretched palms gently to indicate his displeasure in being manhandled. With a deep breath, Isaac let go of his brother and stalked away in deep thought. '_If he found the shard, then I could potentially have one less item on my list._' He pondered to himself. With a steely resolve, he turned back around and decided to take the bait just this once.

"Then why am I still talking to you?" Isaac chose to end the conversation there and then. Needless to say, Ryan found a way to make it less impactful.

"**Your words wound me, dear brother.**" Ryan crooned sarcastically, holding his hand towards his heart and putting on a fake sad face for Isaac's viewing pleasure.

"Boo-hoo. Go cry yourself a damn river. Just let her in." He snarled at Ryan who quickly resumed his neutral stance with a condescending sigh.

"**If you wish, dear brother.**" Ryan gave in and freely left of his own accord to allow his brother and their guest to speak in private. Isaac did not have to wait long to meet the Forerunner. Her white gown covered most of her twig-like alien body, only showing similarly branch-like extremities amidst the white plume. Her head was eerily human in some areas but it also had just enough weird amalgamations such as small slits as nostrils and wide eyes of a deep yellow that you could tell she was alien. At least that what Isaac assumed its gender was.

"I assume that you're the Forerunner my brother speaks of." Isaac asked of her almost immediately.

"That is correct, Instigator." The Forerunner answered in a booming voice, adopting the title given to him by their race. Isaac groaned in complete revolting disgust. If he never heard that name spouting from their lips again, it'd be too soon.

"Enough with the titles. I'm sick of hearing that." Isaac remarked as he reclined back in his comfy chair conjured up from the depths of his mind. Imagination really was the birthplace of ingenuity.

"Our race have always been known by titles, Instigator. Just as our gods are known by them." The Forerunner continued to speak in a prophetic manner, akin to a religious nutcase. All this time, Isaac was starting to doubt the validity of his brother's claim.

"What's yours then?" Isaac shot back with indifference.

"I am the Librarian, Instigator. A recorder of time if my title permits." She told him. '_Well, that's original._' Was all Isaac got out of her explanation.

"Joy..." He quipped. The Librarian deemed it as a mere slight and brushed off the care-free nature of his comment, getting back to the task at hand.

"I was intrigued by your aspect's request. It matches much of what I now hold in my possession. Tell me, is this what you're looking for?" The Librarian stated clearly as she held out a small block of Forerunner metal in her bony fingers. The metal had the same orange glow lines that indicated its alien origins. But what really set this thing apart was the feeling of its power as Isaac brushed it with his fingertips. It hummed with unimaginable power, similar to his experience with the Ihan memory crystal a while back. There was no doubt in his mind that he had found his prize, so tantalizingly close and within his grasp. But he took it with a pinch of salt. Who knew what tricks anyone could pull on him?

"Yep, that'd be it. How did you come by it?" Isaac answered as he pulled his eyes away from his cursory examination and refocused his gaze upon the Librarian.

"This shard is known as the Janus Key by many of our kind. It was used to map out any Forerunner technology left from our purge and entrusted to me for safekeeping." She explained to him. Almost as soon as the word entrusted was brought around, Isaac became sceptical. '_Why would she give away something she was tasked with protecting at all costs?_' he considered at least twice over before asking the all-important question.

"If it's so important, why are you giving this to me? The so-called Instigator?" Isaac inquired the Librarian of her logic behind the decision. The Librarian seemed to have her answer all ready to fire way. And fire away she did...

"I had another candidate in mind. A brilliant scientist amongst your kind who I foresaw could lead mankind into a new stage of evolution." She announced to Isaac. The dots weren't too hard to connect. After all, there was only one scientist he knew fit the bill.

"Well, your logic must have been right on the money then. That's all she cares about." Isaac snarled at the mere idea that she could be considered for such an honour. Did the supposedly all-knowing Forerunners screwed somewhere along the way to even recommend her for it?

"How can you judge, when the stories the Gods speak of you are just as terrible?" The Librarian requested of him an answer, peering at him with the most curious irises one could affix to him. They were like mini-suns threatening to blot him out and it did not help in coming up with a reply that he felt was suitable.

"I can do that because I don't want anyone to become me. What I am, I've made peace with that. But don't think for a second I will see anyone else fall to such depths ever again." He shakily told her, cringing at fresh pain from his past. Even now, the mental scars were as deep as the day he scraped them into his brain.

"That is why I choose to pass our secrets onto you. Your will, your drive shall allow them to see that future. Your bravery in facing the coming end times is far more important as of right now than the impetus of evolution." The Librarian proclaimed her reasoning. 'For a human, he seems to have a narrow-minded idea of what humanity is.' She figured. From what she could glean from his aspect's words, this ordinary human has seen more than most in such a short span of time. And yet, why did she still have the feeling that the Gods may have been partially true in their recounting of his deeds?

"I... Thank you?" Isaac gave a confused token of appreciation, accepting the Janus Key from the Librarian in the same manner. The Librarian's bony flesh felt quite tepid against his rough, callous, battle-worn scarred flesh, a dichotomy of sorts between the two different species.

"Do not thank me yet, Instigator. I see that the path before you is fraught with peril and danger. Tread lightly, chosen one. For they shall not wait for you to rise back to the heights of your power." She prophesized in an all-knowing tone as she raised her hands upwards and dissipated her essence from his mind with a quick flurry and a blinding flash of orange light. Isaac collapsed from the strain the combined presence had on him, hitting the metal floor hard with little to soften the blow. As he strained to rise from the ground, his eyes darted to the newfound shard, now humming with the same searing orange light and tumbling around in his palm like a baton.

"Great... Another prophetic miracle... Just perfect..." he grumbled to himself. If saving the universe wasn't bad enough without the inhabitants putting fate in false prophecies, he had to deal with supernatural shit. '_Just freaking brilliant, my life._' He swore, rubbing his ribcage and feeling his healed stomach wound for the first time in two days. His feet finally sought purchase on the floor beneath him, only to discover he was somewhere else entirely. The room was a cornucopia of symptoms indicating a recent fight. From the scattered and burning shreds of paper to the gaping holes in both the hull right behind him and the ajar door standing before him, it was clear that his sojourn into the realm of the mind took much longer than anticipated. What was merely three minutes was actually three hours in real life.

'_What the hell? What happened?_' Isaac shot the query to himself. Instinctively, he reached for his trust All-Purpose Magnum in his leather holster and drew it in one swift motion. His hands clenched around the butt of the gun and steadied his aim considerably from his shaky exterior. The only thing he could do was aim it squarely at the blasted metal frame and inch closer. Outside was no different from his room. The hallways were lined with bullet holes, plasma burns and eerie glowing orange singes that he recognized from his previous encounters with the so-called Prometheans. Beams were left wide open from explosive blasts. Split rails were scattered across the floor and intermittent sparks from breakaway wires lit the room in intervals. '_Must have been a swift battle for me to go unnoticed by all parties involved._' He mused knowingly, peering out from his hiding place down each length.

"**I see we have awoken to a place not unlike the one we left.**" Ryan crept back in, eyeing the wreckage through his brother's own bloodshot red irises. He could almost feel his brother's tongue dream up a new curse word at his resurgence.

"No shit, genius. This place's a mess." Isaac narrowed his brows, treading lightly out of his comfort zone.

"**I've seen worse.**" Ryan could not help but comment.

"Tell me about it." Isaac nodded in swift agreement as he stepped over a fallen barrier silently. Any noise he made could potentially draw attention and he certainly did not want that.

"**It would be fair to assume that our enemies have closed the distance between us.**" Ryan answered, referring to the White Phoenix rather than the side-notes he had been fighting all along.

"Well, Archer's going to be in a nice surprise when I find him." He replied in a snarky manner. His brother's voice chuckled dryly upon hearing his statement. '_Now there's the brother I've known all these years._' He tenderly remarked to himself as he watched his brother stalk down the hallway in a tense manner.

"**Indeed, but he's not the only game in town.**" Ryan reminded him, pulling his attention towards the plasma burns and orange singes slapped across the walls like a man with bad taste in wallpaper.

"Let's focus on getting a grip on the situation before we make assumptions." Isaac told him, turning a corner and checking every nook and cranny for potential threats.

"**Your move, brother. Your move.**" Ryan finalized his words as he let his presence fade away into the backdrop. Isaac finally felt in control of his mind and just in time since the task at hand required all his mental faculties. But he had to wonder. What did happen in the last few hours.

Two Hours Ago

Chaos. That's what happened. At least that what appeared to happen when John and Cortana were taken by surprise by not one, not two but three small armies assaulting the ship. The only warning that they did get was a brief snippet of a marine in the bridge, informing the crew through the P.A system that there were imposters on the ship, followed by a hair-raising scream and complete static afterwards. The blasts followed soon afterwards, a slew of both Covenant and Forerunner troops surging into the ship and massacring the surviving crew, the insurgents and each other with extreme prejudice. In a word, order had left the building entirely and they were caught right in the middle of it.

"Covenant on your right, Chief." Cortana bellowed into his comm link. John acknowledged the order, sending a hail of gunfire down the corridor at the hiding Jackal as he raced for new cover. Despite the suppression, the Jackal found the nerve to peek out for a split second and let loose a few rounds of its Carbine Rifle right back at the armoured super soldier. He barely had seconds to spare before the swath of plasma bolts whizzed past his head.

"That was close." John remarked, snapping to the Jackal's head in one swift, glorious motion and popping off a round into its brain matter. Its head was thrown backwards as the round penetrated his eyeball, sending the carcass flying off its feet and nestling firmly into the wall right behind it. A whistle flew right out of John's mouth at that.

"Must have been armour-piercing..." he contemplated, glancing down at his assault rifle cradled within his bulky metal gloves.

"Do you think that was a scout?" Cortana queried, her voice still as distorted as ever. John shrugged his shoulders as he sauntered past the corpse embedded and encased in the steel wall.

"Possibly. We need to get to the bridge. Hopefully, we can make some sense of the matter." John replied to her.

"Yeah, maybe." Cortana gave a quick shrug in response. Truth be told, the bridge sounded like a warzone now. There was no way there were any survivors left from the struggle. At least, any that were even remotely friendly. Suddenly, a hail of chattering machine gun fire erupted into their ears, along with the shuffling of feet and metallic constructs. Screams of pain cried out to be heard, begging for the pain to stop. Then, simple plain silence followed.

"Did you hear that? Sounds like our marines are in trouble." Cortana told John. He responded simply by giving a curt nod, shouldering his rifle and taking a defensive posture as his feet remained rooted to the ground.

"It came from the hangar. We'd better move out." John drawled out in a militaristic tone, akin to handing out orders on a regular basis.

"On it, Chief." Cortana acknowledged her protector's orders, flipping her motion scanning programs back online and marking the hangar bay on his waypoint. John need do little but follow the breadcrumb trail, only in this case that trail was nothing but blood, broken bodies and the gentle tinkle of shell casings rolling helplessly across the uneven surface. Every step they took greeted them to a scene of horror. Dead soldiers, both theirs and the white-clad insurgents were littered across the floor. One of them was tangled up in the webs, his mouth and irises agape in a moment of sheer terror, the last thing to wash over his young mind. The white uniforms were outwardly stained with red, dripping ominously drop by drop onto the floor, creating a puddle John had no choice but to step into simply to pass. The smell of gunpowder wafted seamlessly in the atmosphere, completely indistinguishable from one area to the next. Foreign weapons the pair had never seen before was all over the battlefield. Out of curiosity, John snatched one of the strange procurements up from the cold, dead hands of a pale-white insurgent.

"Cortana, can you scan this? Tell us what we're up against." John held up his palm to allow Cortana to digitalize herself into existence. Her blue hue emitted a small glow in the flickering chamber, a calming presence in such a gruesome scene.

"I'll do my best. Scanning now..." Cortana flashed her irises across the weapon, still tainted by the blood of its previous owner. Instantly, her programs drew up algorithm after algorithm as she did her best to determine the nature of their arsenal and by extension the enemy itself.

"Got it. Design seems quite immaculate, modern make." Cortana clinically mused, standing upright once more.

"How modern?" John pressed the issue.

"About 21st to 22nd century if I had to pinpoint." Cortana replied in an instant. Now he just gave her a weird look, wondering if he had heard her right.

"That's not modern. That's antique." John retorted. A three century old gun not being an antique. '_Is Cortana's processing starting to suffer from the deterioration?_' he pondered to himself. As if she could read minds, Cortana quickly dispelled such myths and pointed to the foreign tool.

"Not from the looks of this thing. No rust, no signs of aging. It's like these weapons were only just recently manufactured." She explained further. '_Okay, so not old. Just using 21__st__ century design docs. That makes so much more sense._' He considered mentally. Turning his attention to more pressing matters, he quickly switched the subject to more practical terms.

"Functionality?" he summed up in one word.

"According to the schematics, this appears to be a modular rifle, built to adapt to any situation. Right now, it seems to have been outfitted for short-range skirmishes." Cortana rattled off in record time.

"SMG?" John replied, looking down at the weapon with a hint of respect. Whoever made this was a technical whizz. No doubt of that fact was going to filter past his mind.

"Best guess I have, Chief." Cortana shrugged, deconstructing her digital form and returning to the sanctuary of the microchip embedded in the back of her protector's helmet.

"It'll do. Let's keep moving." John grimaced, levelling the weapon and returned to his original pace. As they approached the entrance to the hangar bay, they could hear an audible moan cry out from beyond the frame of the destroyed door. Smoke billowed right in front of them, preventing them from seeing the victim through the smokescreen.

"Hang on, kid. I'm coming." John dashed through the black fog and out the other end. Finally seeing his target, a marine pinned under a fallen metal banister with a wounded leg, he raced over to his side.

"Oh, thank God! I thought you were one of them." The marine exclaimed in relief upon seeing the hero of the human race saddle up next to him. Immediately both men set to work freeing him from the fallen pillar, which was easier said than done. Even with four hands, two of which were capable of lifting stone boulders with relative ease, the pillar proved quite stubborn indeed. It was only until John looked skywards that he saw the problem. The pillar hadn't completely severed itself from the rafters and they were attempting to pull the whole arch of metal to the ground. Luckily, John managed to scavenge a small blowtorch to aid with the severance.

"Which one?" Cortana mused at the comment, distorted as her voice was. John merely languished, rolling his eyes in their sockets.

"Not the time, Cortana." He told her exasperatedly.

"Sorry, Chief." Cortana apologized just as he finished burning through the last remnants of metal that held it in place. The whole beam started to fall, rivets and all, stopped in its tracks by a quick save by John's dexterous arms. He yanked the support beam off the injured marine with little effort and tended to his wounds.

"What happened?" He spoke in a commanding yet drawling manner. The marine cringed as he applied pressure to his wound and glanced at the bandage wrapping itself quite nicely in the aftermath.

"Those damn Covenant started pouring in out of the woodwork on the central entrance. As we were defending the position, those... insurgents came out of nowhere and decimated the rest of us, including the Covenant forces. The marine gasped out in bouts of stifled groans of agonizing pain. It was even worse when John tied the knot at tight as he could. The flesh squeezing underneath the fabric really pinched his raw nerves and he had to close his mouth with his free hand just to avoid telegraphing their position to everyone on the ship.

"Any other survivors?" John questioned, standing up and scanning the corridors to either side of them for any unsuspecting foes.

"No... Cough... Cough... Not that I saw, Chief." The marine spoke in a raspy manner, coughing twice as he did so. '_There's no way this guy is able enough to fight._' He considered. The best thing to do was to make sure he got out of here before more foes started crawling out of the woodwork. Scavenging a Magnum Pistol from a pile of wreckage that once resembled a weapon locker, he thrust it into the awaiting hands of the sole survivor.

"Go find any other survivors you can. Regroup wherever possible and get to safety." John gave him orders. The marine groaned as he clambered to his feet and it looked like he was about to argue his point. Instead however, he gave a impromptu salute to the Chief, gripping the pistol with all his might as he did so.

"On it, Chief. Good luck." The marine murmured as he stepped over the support beam and sprinted out the door. Soon enough, he was no longer visible in the Chief's eyes save for of course Cortana's motion trackers. The little white friendly dot pinged second by second as it slowly drew away from their position.

"So what now, Chief?" Cortana asked expectantly as she heard more gunfire erupt all around them. John responded by pulling back on his assault rifle's firing mechanism and letting a spent shell casing fly out and clink against the hard surface below.

"Now we take back our ship." John remarked, dashing off to meet his enemy. Oh, he would meet his enemy all right. But not all things were as clear cut as it should be...

Two Hours Ago

Archer Holden sallied forth through the carnage after a successful campaign against the holdouts on the bridge. After the go-ahead was given by the salacious captain, Archer and Terrence took their opportunity to scour the ship for Isaac Eisenhower and the whereabouts of the shard located in this plane of existence. The impromptu assault by the aliens forces that resided her gave him due time to nab several prisoners from out of nowhere as insurance for his future encounters. He had not gone unnoticed in this respect however and soon enough all four parties involved were engaging in a close-quarters combat situation which he predictably won. How could he lose when he had the Gods on his side?

"Sir, bridge has been secured. All hostiles have been terminated." A lone lieutenant saddled up next to him as Archer's eyes yielded to the beauty of the carnage occurring right in front of him. It was the will of the gods and it had never looked quite so beautiful.

"And what of our prisoners?" The malignant bald-headed leader demanded of his subordinate.

"Still in custody. They're struggling a little bit more than usual but we have them under control." The disciple nodded through his airtight visor. Holden beamed warmly at his follower. He was a part of the Silent Ones, infiltrators with no equal and loyalty beyond comparison. But then again, all his troops were loyal. '_They are loyal not to the man who leads them but to the deities who we worship in entirety._' He corrected himself. Many things could be said about him but egotistical was not one of them.

"Well done, my disciple. Inform your troops. Pull all remaining loyal followers back to the hangar bay and hold it at all costs. As soon as that is done, tell me quickly." Holden responded favourably, patting him on the shoulder for a job well done. The disciple bowed gracefully in gratitude for his benevolence.

"Go now, my child. They will not wait for the will of God to be cast upon them!" he barked proudly to him.

"Yes, Father Phoenix." He replied, walking away. Archer could hear him bark out subsequent orders to his remaining troops, commanding them to heed his will. Soon, only Terrence, his male bodyguard and himself were left alone in the wrecked bridge control. '_Perhaps it is time to call in our erstwhile allies. I think they may be of use to us in this conflict._' He mused mentally. That thought cleared his head in record time and his fingers went right up to the comm link jammed in his earlobe, depressing on one of the buttons and linking him to the eager duo.

"Kerrigan, Raynor." He called out. There was a scuffle on their end as they frantically scrambled to pick up the device and wedge into their own earlobe.

"Archer! Was getting worried on this end. What happened?" The older, grizzled veteran's smooth undertones echoed vibrantly in Archer's ear.

"We were set upon by Isaac's rabid believers. It seemed they would not listen to reason." Holden responded in a sad, regretful banter. Were he actually sorry, it would have been a more believable story. To the duo who were deeply entranced within his web of lies, they ate it up like nothing they've ever had.

"That's not a good turn of events." James responded ruefully, the telltale signs of disappointment clear as he sighed heavily into the comm link.

"It is not. I hope to lure him out with some bait. Hopefully we can avoid further bloodshed. I've sent word to Shuttle Delta to pick you up." Archer explained at great length to the two.

"We'll be ready in five." Sarah Kerrigan finally perked up and bantered over the comms. He smiled at the enthusiasm the ghost was displaying. Perhaps in a different time, she may have been a noteworthy addition to his collection of followers. Now however, she was only a malleable tool against his foe.

"Good, Holden out." He crooned at the end, ending the conversation on a high note. '_Good, they are none the wiser._' He pondered aimlessly as he felt his comm link with his finger again, this time for a more direct call.

"Is he dealt with, my child?" he rasped out expectantly over the comm.

"Yes, Father Phoenix. He enjoyed... his pleasure quite immensely." The female bodyguard demurely replied joyously. Clad only in underwear and a towel, her irises laid claim on the corpse nestled perfectly on the once stainless bed. Andrew Del Rio had finally gotten his wish to be bedded by an absolute beauty. Too bad he never saw the black widow in her emerge until the blade was well within his still beating heart and he ceased to exist at all. But the bodyguard didn't just stop there. Oh no... She slit his throat from ear to ear just for good measure. Even now, she was still bathed in his dried extruding matter and loving every rapturous minute of it. '_It is a pity the Gods saw fit to see his life snuffed out. I would have enjoyed to have that little toy just a little bit longer._' She sadistically wondered to herself as Archer spoke up again.

"Excellent, my disciple. You shall reap the rewards for your sacrifice to the heathens." He proclaimed. '_But I will enjoy the blessings the Gods grant me now for my unholy sacrifice. I will lie with another thousand heathens if they will me to. For the Gods themselves!_' she proudly announced happily in her heart. As far as psychopaths go, she was as about as far gone as she could possibly be.

"I live only to serve." She answered positively before cutting the communication entirely. '_Now I have to wash this heretic's blood off my pure vessel._' She mused, walking back into the shower for a well-deserved bath even as the room began to stink with the decay of the captain's shredded body.

Archer heard her connection sever and he stood back upright with a straight smile on his face. His plans were soon coming to fruition, just as the Gods had themselves prophesized. He was quick to note that he was not a prophet, merely a leader who volunteered to lead them to the promised land. That's all he saw himself as. The man who will lead them unto heaven...

"Terrence, are there any combatants of these pestilent aliens still left standing?" He asked of his second-in-command.

"Small contingents as far we can guess, Father." He answered readily and honestly. Holden smiled wickedly at this, seeing the possibilities he could potentially consider playing against Isaac just to be safe.

"Retreat in that general direction. Lead them onwards to the hangar bay. We shall wipe our foes out in one swift strike before the sun sets again." Holden mused pro-actively and waved off Terrence dismissively. Terrence took as a sign that he wished to be left to his divine interpretations.

"As you command, Father." He bowed, slamming his fist to his chest lightly in a sign of sheer belief and loyalty. He stepped away and commanded the troops under his veil to follow him and placed his finger to his ear in order to contact any remaining survivors. As they shambled away, Archer laughed grimly at the scene before. The sadistic overmind could not help but cherish the sight of this fallen world. Another world to be cleansed by their righteous fire...

Thirty Minutes Ago

Sarah Kerrigan and James Raynor stepped onboard the Infinity, flanked by some of the best troops both Raynor's own Raiders and the White Phoenix could spare. Both were dressed for success, Raynor in his black combat suit and Sarah draped in a white ghost suit with yellow outlines marking each asset of hers. The Raiders accompanying them had a hard time keeping their eyes on the prize... Well at least a different kind of prize. The White Phoenix on the other hand were all business and no fun on this trip and with good reason. They certainly didn't want to let Isaac Eisenhower the slippery eel worm his way out of their grasp for the umpteenth time. So in retrospect, they didn't seem out of character for the usually observant duo.

"Raynor to Holden, over?" James contacted the enigmatic leader through his sat link. Holden's garbled voice started to crack once in a while over the link. It was only two corridors down did the signal begin to resemble anything remotely moderate in terms of strength.

"Holden here. Assume arrival was uneventful?" Holden's clear drawling tone cleared the airwaves and into their earlobes.

"Yep. Making our way to you now." James echoed his sentiments. Aside from the short EMP burst the gravity well above rocketed the shuttle (and sending Sarah rocking right into his lap), it was a mild slog through the jungle. At first glance, it seemed odd that an alien planet would sustain such a human biosphere on its infrastructure. But then again, he had seen far more stranger sights over his years and this rivalled none of them. If anything, this was the tamest wildlife he's seen so far.

"Good, now listen. We managed to capture some of the crew during the initial skirmish. With any luck, we can draw Isaac out into the open." Archer laid out his intended game plan. Sarah took notice of the word capture, thinking immediately of the worst it possibly meant. Were they injured in battle? Or were they willing surrendered combatants? Either way sounded more disturbing.

"Are they hurt?" She chimed in hesitantly, interrupting Raynor's motion to speak. He fizzled back and passed the sat link over to her awaiting arms, keeping his eyes levelled on the path ahead.

"We've done our best not to harm them, Sarah. But there's only so much we can do." Holden intoned resistantly. From the tone of his voice, she could tell that he did not care for sentiment. If it stopped him from accomplishing his task, then it wasn't worth considering. Hopefully, she could fix that sooner rather than later.

"I understand but that doesn't mean we can't try harder." Sarah answered argumentatively, railing against this suggestion. There's always another way to most things than simply going in guns blazing. Goodness knows how that turned out for her Queen of Blades' persona...

"I get where you're coming from, Miss Kerrigan. But we need to remain vigilant in light of recent events. Now if possible, we'll see about convincing them of the error of their ways. But I do not promise such a happy outcome." Holden remarked irritably. James chose wisely to step in before she pissed off their gracious host any further.

"We'll deal with it. Where are you holding this shindig?" He responded, shushing Kerrigan with a withering glare. '_Great, I can expect to get my rear chewed off later._' He mused willingly.

"Hangar bay. We're drawing the remaining combatants as close as possible as so to reach a wider audience. Plus, their alien foes can be wiped off the map in one fell swoop." Archer explained to the duo. That drew their attention. More parties involved?

"Negotiable?" James asked the all-important question on their minds. To his regret, Archer sighed contemplatively at his query. He swore he could hear him shaking his head sadly in the background, even if this was just audio.

"Negative. Completely hostile." He finally answered.

"Shoot... Okay, we'll be in touch. James out..." Raynor cut the communiqué there and then. '_Well, this day just turned into one big clusterf*#(..._' he wistfully thought, rubbing his head with his free hand.

"Is this really what we're doing? Resorting to prisoners? I'm not sure if I agree with this." Sarah objected, shouldering her rifle and keeping a brisk pace towards the hangar bay.

"I know. I don't like it either. But Isaac doesn't play by the rules and we can't expect to do so either." James admitted partially. It's true that this method of attack was... unorthodox. But to be fair, Isaac has pulled some insane moves on his own. Who knows what other surprises he has in store?

"There must be another way. There just has to be." Sarah repeated again and again, craning her head for a worthy solution to their problem. Try and try again... Still nothing would blip into her mind. Not a damn thing...

"If there was, I would take it in a heartbeat. Hey..." James began, pulling Sarah away from the wall as she pounded it with her fist, denting the metal accidentally.

"Maybe this will work in the end. Sometimes we need to trust in order to get it back." He starkly reminded her, gazing deeply into her emerald eyes for a brief moment until the memory came back. She had to trust, let him in... But even that was hard on several occasions to be fair.

"I... You're right, Jim. I'm sorry." Kerrigan finally found the strength to let go of some of her convictions and misgivings, kissing her love as deeply as she could. She didn't care that the rest of their squad was just a few feet away, watching the two lovebirds sort their mess out.

"Don't apologize, darling. It's not your fault." James spoke warmly, pulling away from the kiss in a haze. That's what love will do to anyone...

"Guess we better go get him, right?" Sarah awkwardly commented, still wrapped in her lover's embrace as tight as she possibly was.

"That's the spirit, darling..." Raynor smiled, his bone-white teeth all the clearer and more beautiful in Sarah's eyes. And so they finally arrived at the set location. Spotting Archer hovering over five hostages and a small army of his loyal soldiers, they waved over to him expectantly. Archer acknowledged their presence, quickly snapping out final orders to his followers.

"Ah, I see you made it..." Archer beamed warmly as they walked into the middle of the room.

"Wouldn't miss it, Archer." James remarked, his eyes glued to the hostages on their knees nearby. Their mouths and eyes were covered in a thin cloth, the only echoes of their voices the muffled cries of help that seemed less likely to come by the second. Of note, Sarah looked guilt-ridden as she walked by them, not even the thought of nailing the bastard who led them astray helping to allay that sinking feeling.

"Come... According to my scouts, they've spotted Mr. Eisenhower himself racing to meet our acquaintance." Archer explained the situation, his men moving into place.

"Good. I'll set up in a nearby location." James offered, pointing his thumb towards the large sniper rifle disassembled in his backpack. Sarah was taken aback by his volunteering.

"Why not me?" Kerrigan asked incredulously. Raynor may be a good sniper but Sarah could easily top his record in a heartbeat. Plus her psionic abilities were quite useful in tracking down her prey.

"He'll be expecting you to be there, not me. I'll have a much better chance of surprising him." James explained. At this, Sarah had to see his point. Isaac will be expecting Sarah to be the marksman, not him. With all he's capable of building out of scratch, it was fair to say he was ready to handle her at any given time.

"Okay. Be careful, Jim." Sarah pecked him lightly on the cheek as she took position right next to Archer behind the prisoners.

"I'll be sure to, darling..." James replied with witty charm, clambering up to the rafters and taking a position in one of the more shadowy points on the place. As he assembled his beast of a rifle, he could not help but think that this journey was far from over. In fact, if his gut was right, this escapade was only in its warm-up phase. But now was not the time to ponder about gut feelings while looking down the high-powered scope of his powerful sniper rifle. Now was the time to wait for their prey... Soon he would come... Soon...

Present Time

Isaac yanked the door to the hangar bay rafters open with a tug on the frame, the door still on its metal hinges at best. The sound the door made alone was enough to make even this seasoned veteran more than a little paranoid. Equally so since there was a bunch of bad guys roaming the ship wanting to send his soul into the afterlife. Or wherever their Gods resided. Clambering over the short hurdle of metal right beneath his thin legs, his rifle came soaring out, scope in place and eyes trained on the horizon. The hangar bay had seen better days. Half of the supports were almost crumbling at the seams from the numerous explosions rocketing the hull. Scattered remnants of crates, both wooden and metal splintered the walls with lethality from minor cuts.

It seemed odd at first, the lack of tension wafting in the air. He expected it at one point, a sure-fire sign that his enemies had caught up to him. Now however, there was only silence apart from the billowing of flames that served to illuminate the room aside from the few remaining lights that still functioned. His feet graced the thin lines across the bruised halls with grace and dexterity in his usual wary manner. Whipping out his APM, the veteran stepped to the banister and looked agape at the scene presented before him like a perverse play orchestrated for his viewing pleasure.

Three helpless victims were spread far apart from one another, bound and gagged with rope and cloth, trickles of dried blood pitifully clinging onto their dirt-stained faces. Vainly, they struggled against their bonds, either praying for a miracle or avoiding surrender to what seemed to be an inevitability. Even worse, they looked paraded from his point of view, laid out on the makeshift stage like a sacrifice, an offering of sorts. All around them however was a sea of white and gold, with naught else, even flesh to distinguish one another from the pack. They stood rapt at attention, their weapons out and ready for anything to go awry.

Archer Holden and Sarah Kerrigan stepped forward onto the main stage and the benevolent putrid mess of a man grasped his microphone tightly like it was his lifeline of sorts. Sarah meanwhile from Isaac's perspective looked almost relegated to boring guard duty. The fact that she was here and keeping a close eye on Holden made Isaac's skin tingle with remorse and fear. But things had to be done. So, without further ado, he scrambled to a nearby weapon crate and pulled out the disassembled parts of a standard sniper rifle from its metal clutches. The cold steel felt like an old hand to Isaac but its stinging power remained all the more lethal. As he watched Holden's lips edge closer to the mic, he groaned at how bad his day was. '_Great, I get to listen to Mister Fancy Pants rant about some absolute nonsense._' He grimaced, latching the stock to the main body of the gun.

"My friends... We have come a long way from our humble roots. We have journeyed far, sacrificed much to accomplish our goals." Archer monologue aloud to the room, his voice hitting its mark each and every time. Sometimes it would dip into a sombre and at others it would rise in fury and righteousness, at least by his definitions. Isaac latched the box magazine to the gun, fusing it together with a simple click-and-drop mechanism.

"Our enemy has remained elusive, decisive in his mad quest for absolute chaos and destruction. He has turned loyal brothers and sisters against our cause, to which we had little choice but to put down. He turned them into savage beasts, rabid with the will of his words to drive them." The rant continued amidst the increased mumblings from his prisoners. His hands flowed dexterously, snapping a bipod to the front to steady his aim. He only had one shot at this and he wasn't to pull nothing less than a Kerrigan.

"But we have come to what I hope shall be the end. The end of our great escapade. The end of the murderer Isaac Eisenhower..." Holden spoke grimly, eliciting a stifled chuckle of sarcasm from his foe and a wave of applause and cheering from his followers. Only Sarah remained unmoving and unfeeling, keeping her true emotions bottled up. It's too bad she won't be the one to kill Isaac. He wasn't all that stealthy to begin with. She clocked his presence long before she peered from the corner of her emerald green eye his visible actions from up above. '_Just like we planned..._' she let a smile pass her red lips.

"If you can hear me Eisenhower, listen... I have your comrades-in-arms with me right now. They fought valiantly for victims in the service of a coward. If you surrender yourself willingly, we shall not pursue further bloodshed against those who remain." Archer forebodingly challenged the disgruntled soldier with nothing left to lose, just as Isaac finally snapped the scope onto the mounted picatin rail on the front end and let his eye travel up to the scope with a crooked grin of closure. No backing out now...

"I will give you one last chance. End this vicious cycle and redeem your soul. May God steer onto the right path..." The bold leader flourished proudly, letting the mic swing with his wrist and inciting a massive rallying cry from the gaggle of cultists down below.

"Yeah... In your dreams, pal..." Isaac muttered, letting his finger curl around the trigger with a steady grip. Not a single muscle felt out of place, no nervous willies to accompany this overzealous assassination. This wasn't even personal nor business. It was merely cathartic in the eyes of Isaac Eisenhower. Nothing else... But just as the trigger felt easily within his reach, a shadowy form rushed out of the shadows and blindsided him, knocking the gun away from his startled hands. Looking up, he could not see his attacker's face, shrouded as it was in shadows and pitch-dark glimpses. He did not even to hear his voice to know it was him.

"Hello again, Isaac." And the form of James Eugene Raynor rose his fist to strike the fanatic down in one fell swoop, fury blazing in his irises.

**Welp... I promised I would try to consolidate this and make it a two-parter but I'm really busy with work and I didn't want to delay this any longer. So, next time will be a different chapter name and hopefully one of the last few chapters for this fanfic. Hope you guys enjoy and as always have fun and... be CO-OPERATIVE!**


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